


Steam

by Ornery Otter (Greiver_Dhark)



Category: Naruto
Genre: A bit more than typical violence, Am I really gonna write an SIOC?, Because of Hidan, Konoha - Freeform, SI OC - Freeform, bit of worldbuilding, hot water, okay then
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2019-09-14 10:43:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 31,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16911441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greiver_Dhark/pseuds/Ornery%20Otter
Summary: It felt like he just blinked. One moment he lay dying in hospital, the next he had the sun glaring in his eyes, the sky blue and clear above him. SIOC.





	1. Chapter 1

It wasn’t at all like how he thought it would happen. 

He thought that when he died, he’d just....disappear. That there wasn’t anything afterwards. Just a ceasing of his existence and awareness. 

Instead it was as though he’d only blinked. One moment he was laying dying in a hospital bed, suffering and weakening, and the next he was stood upright with the sun glaring in his eyes, forcing him to squint. 

It took a moment for him to understand what was going on – he was upright and moving, but not of his own action. Instead it felt as though he was wearing a harness across his chest and between his thighs, leaving his legs dangling down but his body held securely. It wasn’t his legs that were moving him forward – he was attached to the chest of whoever was doing it for him. 

That was confusing. His mobility was limited, but he was mostly frozen anyway as his eyes started to process what he was seeing. A worn dusty path stretched ahead of them, the sky was blue and the sun glared bright and yellow down upon him. He seemed to be wearing a hat. The body behind him was firm and tall (though that might just seem so because he seemed quite small). There were people in the street ahead, heading in the same direction as them. It looked like there was a market ahead. 

He couldn’t turn around far enough to see who was wearing the harness that held him, only his shoulders (which were broad and exposed by a sleeveless shirt). But whoever it was seemed to be pretty muscular and had a fairly dark tan. 

As they continued down the street they reached the market place, which was filled with bright colours and voices shouting wares. It seemed a bit archaic in style, so did the outfits he could now see people were wearing actually. 

His father? Walked them over to a street vendor selling fish and began a transaction with the old woman manning it. Whatever language they were speaking in it wasn’t one he knew, but he only knew English and wasn’t well travelled so that didn’t mean much. It did mean he was at a disadvantage right now though. 

Not that it mattered really, clearly he wasn’t here to make a transaction after all, since he was small and attached to someone else’s chest in a harness. Just along for the ride it seemed. 

He didn’t appreciate when the old lady handed the fish to his carrier and the man leaned forward to take it, nearly sticking his face in the fish in display in the process. It was smelly. 

Grumbling his displeasure and huffing out a few breaths to try and somehow push the smell out of his nose, his discomfort seemed to earn the amusement of the saleswoman if her chuckling was any indication, and the broad chest behind him rocked him with laughter of its own. 

A large hand came from the side and boofed him on the nose, and the feeling of shaking behind him increased when he tried to bite it. He missed the first time but caught it the second, triumphant. With the impression that the hand-owner had given him the hand to placate him, he nevertheless nummed upon it diligently, dismayed to find that he had perilously few teeth in his mouth at present. 

By now the truth of things was starting to become clear, even though it hadn’t really sunk in yet. It was pretty clear that things had changed for him, but somehow the brightness of the world in front of him kept his attention and panic just didn’t set in. 

Instead his eyes wandered as he was taken from stall to stall, drinking in the sights and listening to the sounds even though he couldn’t understand them. A few phrases were repeated – presumably greetings and the like, so he tried to absorb what little he could. 

It wasn’t long before they were turning back down the way they came, walking down the dusty path with the sun at their backs this time. 

Eventually the path they were on narrowed and split off in different directions into residential districts. The man at his back talked quietly as they went, presumably to him, not that he could understand. They drew close to one of the houses, nestled between two others, and the broad arms shifted the groceries onto one arm to open the door with the other. 

“Tadiama!” The greeting was called out from behind him at a loud volume and he reflexively glanced back at the shoulders, only to look ahead when a distant “Okaeri!” was returned from within. 

Well, that sounded like a greeting to him, so he opened his mouth to join in, but what came out was more like “Tadada” at best, and senseless mumbling at worst. His parents? Seemed to appreciate the attempt either way as the harness containing him was lifted off of broad shoulders with him still inside it, and set on the floor. 

He did try and land on his feet, but as soon as any weight was put on them he simply toppled back onto him bum on the floor. Next to him, his father was removing his shoes for some kind of slippers, and moments later shoes were removed from his own feet and slippers placed on them, despite the fact that he’d not stepped a foot outside on his own the whole time. 

His mother wiggled his slipper-clad feet at him, holding his toes and tickling them playfully as the harness was removed from him, revealing himself to be in a little kimono top and trousers of some sort. Very cute, lots of fabric, no wonder he had barely felt the slight chill in the air outside. 

Removed from the travel gear, he suddenly found him hoisted up from behind. It was a strange sensation but smooth and practiced enough that he didn’t feel unsafe. Held now in his mother’s arms as his father wandered into the kitchen with their bounty, setting it on the counter for sorting. He found himself being plonked into a high chair at the table and left to himself for a moment while his parents talked and sorted out the groceries. 

It was clear by now that they were definitely his parents too – they kissed each other and teased each other as they put the groceries away and there were family photos dotted around of the three of them so it was a pretty sure bet. 

Kicking his feet in the high chair, it was also clear that he was a small child, with pudgy hands and stubby legs. He was in no state to do much of anything on his own. 

\----------- 

It was a while before he learned much more about this new place he found himself. He did learn other things though, like his name was Hiseo, though he wasn’t sure what his family name was yet, and he had recently had his first birthday. His father worked a lot and was often gone for a few days at a time, but more often than not he would leave early in the morning and be home for dinner the same day. His mother on the other hand stayed home with him for the most part, encouraging him to learn through play. She also spent a lot of time crafting little decorative items that he presumed were sold. 

His life was simple, but as a child he didn’t really have the capacity for much more anyway and it was a good life. Hiseo didn’t think he was a bad child to have either – he kept tantrums to a minimum and only had a few instances where he’d struggled with being in this new place and what he’d left behind. He was a bit fussy about trying new food but once he knew it didn’t taste terrible he was fine with it. 

The only potential problem really was that he wasn’t very social. His mother had taken him out to the park a time or two, a beautiful little space with a play area for small children and lots of flowers and the like, but despite being introduced to a few other little kids, he had a hard time...knowing what to do with them? Like, they were so little, crawling around and playing with blocks or other toys and babbling at each other. He was happy playing by himself quietly, trying to learn his words and anything else he could. 

After a while his mother grew worried with how quiet he was. He had no problem paying attention or anything, he just didn’t like to make sounds. He didn’t like how nothing sounded right when he spoke it, whether he was trying to speak in English like he remembered, or to learn the words of the language he was being taught now. His parents worried, and eventually one day his father came back with a new determination. 

He stepped into the house with a smile on his face, greeting his family like normal. The difference was the in his hands he held two items: a book, and a small set of drums. 

It turned out that the solution to his near-silence was to sing. Nothing complicated, not even words, his parents would sing simple songs to him and he was encouraged to hum along at the very least. It definitely worked, and he didn’t feel shy about being unable to get the words exactly right – even people fluent in English flubbed half the words to songs. After that things settled a bit and he progressed a lot better. 

Thankfully both his parents had passable singing voices, his mother more than his father. Singing became something that they did through much of their time together from then on. 

It was hard learning a language though. Like everyone who learned a second language, he couldn’t help but start in his own language and try to translate it, so he was still thinking in English first. It did get easier once he was better at simple sentences and the like, especially without anyone to talk to in English to keep that language as the primary one. 

It was also sometimes jarring when he was presented with things that were so different to what he had been used to as ‘normal’. The first time he’d met a kid in the park with green hair and it’d been totally normal to everyone else, that had been odd. People’s eyes too were often a strange colour, not to mention other strange physical differences. (He saw someone once who looked like their skin was made of rock, that’d been very odd.) 

All in all though, everything was peaceful. Wherever it was he lived seemed to be a popular place for visitors, the weather was usually nice and the general atmosphere of the place was joyful. While he wasn’t isolated and was often taken outside, he spent most of his time alone or with one of his parents. 

That all changed eventually though, when he began to learn his letters in earnest, Hiseo was encouraged to venture further on his own, to interact with other children and learn more about this world he lived in. 

It took a while, but he did eventually learn one key thing that he’d missed all this time. Something that had a significant impact on his perception of the world he lived in, which had previously seemed normal enough, and more to the point, relatively safe. 

There were Naruto-style ninja. Hitae-ate and all, he’d seen one when his mother took him out for groceries one day, escorting a produce cart to the market. 

They seemed pretty normal, a team of three young adults who stood around for a moment after the cart came to a stop, before disappearing abruptly – a flash of movement on the rooftops giving them away. 

That knowledge certainly changed things, but not as much as he’d at first thought. It certainly didn’t impact his day-to-day. He still got up in the mornings and ate his breakfast, went about his day trying to get his motor skills up to par, sometimes helping his mother with simple crafts for sale. Though it seemed like his father was a ninja, all aspects of that seemed to be kept from him – he never saw his father armed, never saw any other ninja coming to visit. Either his father didn’t have ninja friends or just kept them away from the house, but the end result was the same. 

He wondered if perhaps his parents didn’t want him to be a ninja since he saw next to nothing about them and they weren’t talked about, but it could just as likely be that he was too young for them to think it worth talking to him about. It wasn’t like he’d be given ninja tools to play with, because for a child his age such a thing would simply be a toy, and that wasn’t a safe mentality to have around weapons. He was still an oblivious, clumsy kid (mostly accurate) so dangerous things were normal to keep away from him. 

Honestly, it was only when he was four years old that his parents actually sat him down to talk to him about what his daddy did, and only then that he was shown the hitae-ate up close. 

It was then that he realised, eyes widening in dismay. 

He wasn’t in Konoha. He was in Yugakure. 

He had to get out of here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: So this just happened. I never really considered writing one of these but I’ve really enjoyed reading them lately (thank you Lang Noi, Silver Queen etc). Also I don’t know much about kids so just googled stuff to figure out what age appropriate things might happen, so sorry if its way off the mark. Totally not my wheelhouse, sorry.


	2. Chapter 2

He couldn’t get out of the land of hot water. 

His father was a ninja and he was a small child, there was just no way. It wasn’t like he could tell his parents the truth – that some creepy nin was going to stomp right through this place and slaughter everyone. He didn’t even know when that was going to happen, if it was going to happen or even if it had already happened. He was here, but did that mean that the events that he knew of in Naruto were the truth, or just that the world they’d been based in existed? 

Even if it was the truth, he wasn’t going to be able to convince his parents to leave – his father had sworn loyalty to the village, to leave would be desertion and he’d be hunted down. If he was believed, it was more likely that they’d try and fight Hidan and lose anyway. Worse, if he was proven true, what would happen to him if it became known that he had known the future? What future would that lead him to? 

He had never learned much about the land of hot water – it didn’t feature much in the anime. All he knew was that it was more of a resort than a hidden village. It did explain why the town seemed laid back and the ninja at ease, unlike what you’d expect from a military dictatorship. Yugakure was considered pretty pacifist and their ninja mostly dealt with keeping the roads safe – hardly a village of assassins and spies. It was rather like what he imagined Konoha pretended to be – a ‘nice’ village, but they were also ‘nice’ enough to not take any of those not-so-nice contracts at all. 

Being pacifist of course meant it barely showed up in the Naruto anime. The only history he knew of was that Hidan had fucked the place up that one time. Pacifist or not though, he didn’t want to bet on them being nice enough not to kill deserters or not mine him for information if he showed he had knowledge like his though. 

Of course this all assumed that he did have relevant knowledge which was no sure thing yet, and he had no easy way to prove it either. Most of what he knew was from Naruto’s genin team time, and worse it was localised to Konoha. Not useful or provable at all. 

He did try and get a hold of a bingo book to try and check what he knew against it, but no dice. Things like that were restricted – certainly a civilian kid like him wasn’t going to get one easily even if one of his parents was a ninja. 

The question then became, what to do with his life? Did he even want to be a ninja? Regardless of when he was, or what might be going on in the world, was that the life he wanted for himself? Being a ninja of Yugakure was a pretty sweet deal for him in a lot of ways – it wasn’t as morally difficult for him than villages that weren’t pacifists or were more volatile. He wouldn’t have to worry about becoming an assassin or killing his fellow students to graduate or anything – he'd more likely just be a ninja guard. That was what his father said most of his missions were. 

Of course escort duty still meant killing bandits if necessary, but it was a lot less difficult to reconcile than just being a murderer for hire. Still, even from a ‘soft’ village like Yu, being a ninja would be hard work, painful and with no guarantee that he’d survive or thrive. 

The alternative was not to be a shinobi, which meant being a civilian. There were plenty of jobs to do, though they came with pros and cons. He wouldn’t be able to travel safely as a civilian – it was just as risky really, because of bandits. So if he prioritised safety he’d have to stay in-village, perhaps make crafts like his mother or work in the hot springs or hotels that populated the resort town. 

He wasn’t sure he could accept that life. 

In his last life he’d kept it simple. Finished school, gotten a job wherever would take him. He spent years working in retail (ugh) and then moved into catering. It paid the bills but was hardly fulfilling – he'd kept his head down, made the safe choices, and ended up with cancer at 24 and dying in hospital. He’d thought all those years ‘I’ll play it safe, build up to it. I’ll go travelling when my situation is more stable’. 

He never got to travel. All that money he’d been saving for the future ended up lining someone else’s pockets at the end of the day, because he’d been too cautious to enjoy it himself. 

This time he wasn’t going to do that. By no means did he plan to be reckless, but he didn’t want to watch life pass him by without getting to experience any of the good bits of it, not this time. 

So maybe he would become a ninja then. A Yugakure ninja that took protection missions and escort missions, maybe something further afield if he went diplomatic. It might be more dangerous than he’d want, but in this world he was just as likely to be a casualty as a civilian in the wrong place at the wrong time than as a ninja actively getting in the way of trouble. 

That wasn’t necessarily a reassuring thought, but it kind of helped, to know that he wouldn’t be helpless this time. Hiseo was going to be a ninja. 

Well, he was going to try to be a ninja. He had no idea if he could actually become one – he didn’t know what the graduation requirements were or if he could use chakra. Not to mention whether he could actually stomach the reality of it – Hiseo hadn’t gotten into a proper fight in his life, new or old, so for all he knew he’d lock up when put on the spot. 

That was a tomorrow problem though, for today he had his decision tentatively made, and with that in mind sought to give himself the best chance he could. He’d started attending the academy recently and it was there that he focused his efforts. 

During outdoor time at school he made sure to learn the stretches and do his best with running the way the teacher showed them. What little he remembered of actual ninja skills involved economy of movement, pushing past limits to encourage growth. He was too young to risk overdoing it, but under the teacher’s watchful eyes, he felt safe enough. 

It was fucking hard though. 

Getting up the determination to really run was easy, but when his lungs were burning and his muscles felt like they were cramping in his legs, it was really hard to keep going. He felt like he was going to be sick and die, possibly simultaneously, and it was only because he’d actually gotten sick and died in the past that he knew that wasn’t actually going to happen. (If he stopped, if he collapsed on the ground and couldn’t move, that was what it felt when he really was dying, so he never did that no matter how much his body wanted him to, he always slowed to a walk and kept moving, always moving so he knew he wasn’t going to die) 

Aside from increasing his body’s endurance though, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do just yet. 

Being a ninja in Yugakure was definitely different than in Konoha. For one the classes were much smaller – there wasn’t much need for ninja in a village like this where it was so heavily pacifistic so it was less popular among the masses. Unlike in other villages where it was an honour to be a ninja in service to the village, here it was a just barely acceptable job to some people, but a necessary one, for most. That was the attitude he encountered early on: ‘someone had to do it’. 

The students also varied in age, offering classes for different skills and specialties, but also opening up the academy to younger students and giving them something of a pre-ninja education in things like observing others, reading and writing, and how to travel safely. Not everyone who went to the academy was going to be a ninja, but everyone who wanted to be a ninja went to the academy. There was also a regular school for kids, which students could switch onto once they were old enough, but it was still considered worthwhile to send younger children to the ninja pre-academy for basic skills that would be useful no matter what they did. 

Because it was mostly bodyguarding though, the focus of their ninja studies delved extensively on protection and recognising trouble before it broke out. It wasn’t uncommon for the small classes to be taken out for brief trips into the village for training and tests, where ninja on duty would give the children something to practice on, using henges and genjutsu to safely show them what to look for and expect without anything bad actually happening. 

Hiseo didn’t do too badly in classes, but he didn’t tend to excel either. He had the benefit of some remembered experience, but found it difficult to apply what he knew in practice. He enjoyed learning though, even though he preferred watching to doing. Learning to skin a rabbit had been hard, even though it had already been dead when he got it, that’d been unpleasant. 

He’d also been pretty bad at making a fire, though he could make the fire pit just fine, getting a spark and letting it catch had been nigh impossible for him. He’d just have to hope he could do a fire release when they started teaching about chakra, but as a kid in the pre-class, it was basics all the way, no proper ninja stuff at all, if you discounted the flexibility and stamina exercises they did during outdoor time. 

Going to classes meant he spent less time at home with his mother, but he actually spent more time with his father now than they had before. Partly because he didn’t sleep quite as much as much as he used to now he was a bit older, to be fair, but also because he spent more time doing activities from his classes. He still helped his mother sometimes, but less often now that he didn’t need quite so much close attention, and his help was actually somewhat helpful now, rather than just something he could fiddle with within his mother’s eyesight. 

It saddened him a bit, that he was already starting to feel the distance from his mother just because he no longer spent all his time with her, but that was a sacrifice he felt helpless to avoid. If he wanted to become stronger, he couldn’t spend all his time playing with her either. He still took the time to be close to her, but not nearly as much as before. She’d been good to him, still was, but growing up was always going to mean moving away from what they'd had before. He couldn’t spend all his time playing under her watchful eye, no matter the future he intended for himself. 

\---- 

One thing that was distinctive about Yugakure was that because it relied almost exclusively on tourism for is economy, the importance of appearance was paramount. It was for that reason that academy students didn’t even touch weapons until they were eight years old, and even then it was during class time only, using unpainted wooden weapons at first. It presented a bad image of the pacifist village if their children were visibly carrying weapons, ninja students or not, so they weren’t allowed to for some time. 

Of course their taijutsu skills were impressive as something to work on that wasn’t visible to tourists, but weapons were another matter. That was how he found himself taking hold of the wooden kunai for the first time, as they were taught how to handle them. 

They were shown how to hold and store them first – it was important to learn how to handle them safely, so for the first day they were shown how, and then told to wear them without them being visible. When his teacher had talked about it, it’d made sense – he’d never seen his father’s weapons, not once. Even active duty ninja were pretty subtle – it was all about appearance, his teacher told them. 

So he wore his wooden kunai, trying to find a spot to put them where they were hard to spot but still accessible. Every now and then the teacher would stop the lesson to have them take one out like they were about to throw it, then put it away again. At the end of the school day the pouches were taken away to be returned to the student in the morning. 

The pattern continued for two days, but the morning of the third day their weapons were no longer unpainted. 

Instead the edges of the ‘blade’ were coated in a bright paint. When they were told to draw their kunai during class time now, any who held the blade incorrectly got paint on their hands to signify a cut. 

It was ingenious, and saved many students from getting injured. No doubt they’d move on to live weapons eventually, but for kids just starting out, he was surprised – pain built up strength he knew, but teaching safe handling in a harmless way seemed something a ninja village wouldn’t bother with. Yu really was a pacifist town. 

It certainly made it easier for him though – he was able to become familiar with a ‘weapon’ without the threat of being harmed by it, especially when they were all still small and naturally a little clumsy. When they finally did graduate to live weaponry (again, during class time only, no kids were allowed weapons outside unless they could hide them completely he supposed) he already had proper handling habits in place. It was nerve-wracking holding a dangerous weapon, even though it wasn’t that sharp at first, but the habits he’d formed with the practice tools meant his body already knew what to do, even while his mind panicked about the danger. 

It was interesting to experience, almost tricking the mind in a way. He soon calmed down from holding a live weapon because he was so used to the wooden ones and knew how to avoid hurting himself. 

Not all he students did so well of course, some hadn’t practiced enough with the wooden ones or taken it seriously enough, but the number of cut fingers and hands was far less than one would expect in a class full of kids with knives. 

\------ 

By the time he was nine years old, his class had merged with several others, and the kids not interested in being ninja had either dropped out or continued into the regular school, or dropped out to work. 

Unlike before where there were a variety of separate classes with students on different tracks (ninja, and non-ninja) now only ninja students remained, and it was here that more practical ninja skills were developed. Before they had shared classes for history, geography, propaganda and the like, along with doing some meditation and exercise. Now the meditation class was cut in half with chakra control, and phys ed became sparring as well. They also were finally taught how to throw their kunai, not just defend with them and hide/handle them, along with other inconspicuous weapons. 

Hiseo wasn’t great at sparring. He could do the moves easily enough, but punching another little kid in the face was hard. He won a lot, but did so without causing much damage. It made it harder to fight, and more often felt like he was trying to capture instead of defeat his opponent as instructed. His teachers saw this, but despite one discussion on it didn’t try to dissuade him. What he was doing was harder, but as long as he understood that he was handicapping himself, it was actually to his benefit to continue as he was. 

So instead of breaking noses and throat-punching like he knew was most effective, he’d enact complex takedowns that pinned his opponent to the dirt, often without hurting them at all, merely immobilising. 

Of course he didn’t always win. One girl early on had gotten offended that he wouldn’t ‘take her seriously’ and had broken his nose pretty badly, but before long it just became normal. The class soon accepted that Hiseo didn’t disable his enemies the easy way, and the teachers let him so it was fine. It was only in rare instances where the class was instructed to use a certain attack or method that he had to fight like he wanted to cause harm instead of to disable without force. 

He honestly wasn’t sure whether he’d ever be comfortable using moves that were intended to be fatal. It was one thing abstaining against other small children, but using non-lethal moves wasn’t always going to be possible, and there was no guarantee that the problem he had was only because of his small opponents. If he was facing a bandit, he might have no choice but to kill them, in combat or afterwards. 

Still, for now it wasn’t a problem. While he did receive some questions about how he came up with some of the moves (some he learned from his father, some he remembered from before and tried them out for himself) as long as he learned the academy teachings it didn’t matter what else he threw in. 

One thing that he did learn in his classes was some recent history. It was mostly focused on his own village of course, even in world events it was mostly aimed at how it affected the land of hot water. Interesting, but not necessarily useful to him or his aim to prove the relevance of his knowledge of this world. He learned that the major villages had several great wars in recent history, always seeming at war with each other really. The smaller villages were usually left out of it, overlooked for the most part, only sometimes used as battlegrounds. 

Most of the minor villages were left to their own devices while the major villages destroyed themselves and each other. As long as a minor village didn’t try and step on any toes and kept to themselves they were mostly fine – basically if they accepted that the major villages could do what they wanted then they wouldn’t draw the ire of that major village. It did put them in a tough spot sometimes because they were pacifists here, and it was a tourist hot spot so keeping it clean and safe was important, but they definitely didn‘t want to get squashed by a big village if they tried to stop or interfere with their business, even if it meant letting an assassination happen on their territory. 

For the most part though, ninja observed a certain courtesy for things like that – it was the same for all ninja villages big and small – if possible, keep things like fights and assassinations quiet, or out of the village proper. It was as much courtesy as good planning – targets were more vulnerable in transit and less chance of them slipping away in a crowd. 

They were taught the procedure for if combat was encountered in the land of hot water, how to check someone’s passport or travel documents if they seemed suspicious or were found somewhere they shouldn’t be, though as a tourist spot there weren’t many restricted places in the village, just the academy and a few buildings used for ninja business like the jail and offices. 

He was ten before they learned about the information network. 

The land of hot water was pacifist, and they had a decent arrangement to keep their land rather than be taken over by a bigger village, despite the moderate strategic advantage that could be. Their land was fertile and the weather conditions were good, yet were allowed their own authority. That was in part because of the neutrality of their land – pacifist and neutral meant a great place for other countries to use as a relatively safe zone. 

A lot of information was traded in Yu. Going to the hotsprings was a good excuse for anyone to come visit, not to mention the massage parlours and other tourist attractions. Land of hot springs was a good meeting spot, and because it wasn’t very centralized (many resorts were built around different hot springs) ninja could come to any hot spring they wanted. Some villages had a ‘preferred’ resort, which made it easier to avoid hostilities. Indeed, if foreign ninja went to Yugakure, they were often recommended to different hot springs depending on their affiliation. It wasn’t unusual if a foreign ninja came to Yugakure for business and were rewarded with a coupon for a hot spring, it’d be for a particular resort. 

In some ways the whole village was split into zones, to keep different ninja away from each other and minimize chances of fighting breaking out. The zones weren’t enforced, but ninja weren’t fools – keeping to their zone meant they had less chance of seeing someone who might provoke them, especially the major villages which always seemed to want to fight each other even when there was no active war. 

That wasn’t even mentioning the missing nin. 

Either way, if the ninja didn’t see something they had to act on like someone from another village or a missing nin, all the better. For the most part people came to Yugakure for the hot springs and/or for information, not to fight. Hiseo was taught to suppress any fighting that might break out in the land of hot springs because if the land became known as too rowdy or dangerous they would lose the tourism that kept the country running. The main export (aside from information which didn’t count) that their country survived on aside from tourism was potato exports and that wasn’t near enough to carry them if anything happened to their tourism industry. 

For all that, it meant that Hiseo’s non-lethal takedown practice was doing him a lot of favours. If he kept it up, he’d almost have a guaranteed spot working in Yugakure proper, he was told. After all, it was better for business if foreign ninja could be detained without harm if a fight broke out. 

It wasn’t really his intention to stay in the village full time, but it was good to know that he could if it turned out that the danger of the road was too much for him. Not to mention the discomfort – there was much to be said about having a warm bed to return to each night and proper washing facilities – neither of which could be found on the road. 

If there was one thing he had learned so far it was that while he might think something was fine in theory, actually doing it was another matter. He couldn’t say whether he’d actually settle with having to catch his own food and wash in rivers if he did choose a role which had him predominantly travelling. 

Those were thoughts for Hiseo of the future though, for now he had much more immediate decisions to make, like who he wanted to pair up with for practicals today, which was tea ceremony. 

Hiseo liked going to the academy. Most of the skills were useful or gave him some insight into something. Because the class sizes were small and the ninja were mostly stationed in the land of hot water it meant that they were often roped into teaching a class or two, so students were exposed to more variety. It also meant they were given ‘taster’ sessions, depending on a shinobi’s specialty. 

Hiseo learned that he was interested in poisons and the like but not in crafting them himself. Unsurprising given his preference for non-lethal takedowns, he wasn’t very good with wounds – mostly because he hadn’t the stomach for the gore. Basic first aid was something he could do at least. 

They were also introduced to different weapons (wooden or otherwise blunted first, mostly) that they were able to try them out and gain some familiarity at least. Hiseo found he rather enjoyed a polearm, though it was not a weapon that was popular in general especially in Yugakure where less visible weapons were preferred for ninja unless they were patrolmen or the like. He liked having a long shaft that he could use like a bo staff, but a sharper end for some distance in his attack. 

He enjoyed nunchakus too, though wasn’t very good at using the flexible chain. He did wonder if he could learn some kind of chain weapon though, if he really did want non-lethal takedowns, it’d help to have a weapon to tie up his opponents. If only he had the coordination to use them, anyway. 

For now it didn’t matter – these were just taster sessions so students could have some awareness of what was out there and some exposure to it. There were lots of lessons about how to make and get out of different knots though, and he was pretty good at those. 

Simpler lessons included learning how to leave and read subtle and hidden messages, and lip reading. Overhearing messages meant for others was how they got much of the information for their network, which meant learning many of the ways messages could be left. 

They were also taught how to move and hide their basic weapons in kimono and other outfits, along with basic customer service, in case they were to be concealed as resort staff while on duty, as was often the case. Somewhat awkwardly they were also shown how to conceal weapons while attending as resort guests also, including wearing just a towel and hiding a few weapons beneath it. 

There just seemed so much to learn. He’d thought that most of what he’d learn would be jutsu, from what he knew of the anime, but clearly not. So far they’d not actually learned a jutsu, only chakra control exercises. It was still amazing to be able to feel the energy moving through his body, to try and manipulate it to give the desired effects. So far they were only really sticking leaves onto their hands like he expected, but even so. At least when they eventually learned water walking, they’d be doing it over the hot springs – far less miserable than doing it over a cold pond or the ocean. 

Graduating the shinobi academy occurred at age thirteen – the oldest that he knew of. Early graduation was possible, but a student still had to show they had learned the lessons they would be missing through their own efforts – no skipping ahead because they were good at one thing or another, a wide knowledge base ensured a more well prepared shinobi, no matter their combat skill or other circumstances. 

Technically most students could graduate at twelve – the last year involved mostly field work, like a work experience, with a few lessons interspersed at the academy (like sex ed and how puberty affected them as ninja). A student could skip it, but it wasn’t recommended – even if they spent the year skipping between different roles, or didn’t pick any of the jobs they’d worked in that year, it gave them the experience of how the village and that particular role worked, and ensured that the bulk of the teaching was passed onto proficient teachers, rather than working ninja who might be good at their jobs, but not so good at teaching younger children how to follow in their footsteps. 

All in all it was a smart system and Hiseo enjoyed it. Was enjoying it rather – he still had a few years to go until he graduated as a Yugakure shinobi. 

Not, it turned out, that he ever would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: So I’ve had to do a lot of worldbuilding here – information on the land of hot water is SCARCE! Some of it may not be correct, but tbh this is going to be AU anyway (isn’t all fanfiction, in the end?) but yeh. Tryin my best!


	3. Chapter 3

Life in Yugakure was comfortable. 

He hadn’t had a choice in where he was born, but if he could he’d pick here. The village was nice and calm and you could always hear laughter coming from somewhere. There were always new people to see and something new to learn. Of course going to the hot springs, something he’d done for the first time when he was five, was also something he enjoyed. 

He would have thought he’d be reborn in Konoha, if he was going to start anywhere in the elemental nations. While he lacked in interpersonal relations in Yugakure, he was rather glad for the calm life he’d gotten to live here, free of the constant extremes Konoha always seemed to suffer. Yugakure wasn’t a village of strong personalities like Konoha. 

It wasn’t like his classmates were all cardboard cutouts, but... they kind of were? It was certainly less stressful than he remembered of the clips of Naruto and Sasuke in Konoha’s academy, and the eccentricities of the adult shinobi. 

Here in Yu, appearances were important. It sometimes felt a bit false, like everyone was constantly pasting on their best customer service face, but it was a tourist destination and the way of life. If there were any traumatised shinobi like Kakashi, or just overblown ones like Gai, they must be sent out of the village proper to run patrols and the like, because he’d never seen a Yugakure shinobi like them. 

The appearance of everything being pleasant and relaxing was visible in all the village’s residents. It shone through in the way their sensei taught them, an attitude that was encouraged. 

Hiseo had found it surprisingly easy to adopt the shared ‘at ease’ attitude, almost like a Yugakure accent. He would have thought that given his history – his life before all this – that he’d be high strung but it was the opposite really. In a way, having lived and died and lived again had taken away much of the fear he might have otherwise felt. 

Perhaps he’d also learned a lesson which softened so much of his fear too: it always ended. By the end of his last life death had been a relief for him. Freedom from the pain of the cancer and its treatments. It would have been easy to fear pain more because he knew how bad it could get, but instead what he’d taken away was something entirely different, something that comforted him and allowed him to push through any pain he experienced now. 

The pain always ended. 

And death hadn’t been so bad. Just a cessation pain really, of all of it. 

So being at ease wasn’t difficult for him at all. There was no point getting worked up about things outside of his control and quite frankly there were always going to be dangers out there, casting a dark shadow. 

But fear for the future didn’t stop anyone else from living their lives and it wasn’t about to stop him either. Knowing that in his life time he was almost guaranteed to experience one war or another, given his knowledge of Naruto history if it did turn out to be accurate. He might not even live that long, perhaps killed by bandits on the road, but so what? Everyone lived despite their fear of death, and death wasn’t as bad as he’d thought it was. 

So Hiseo plodded on with his life, learning skills and keeping his eyes open for hints that might help him gauge what was going on in the land he lived in and the lands surrounding it. His main concerns were Hidan, major wars, and the creation of the Sound village headed by Orochimaru, mostly because lack of fear of death or not, he really didn’t want to suffer as a science experiment for however long he might be kept alive if he fell into those merciless hands. 

At present though, none of those threats were present or even close by – he'd not seen any hints of anything to worry about, not that lack of evidence meant that they weren’t present. He had no idea when Hidan fit into the timeline, if he was even born yet, only that eventually he would attack Yugakure and leave. 

He did fear what might happen to him if what he knew was revealed, but so far that was a non-issue. Not even his parents suspected that he had knowledge that didn’t belong to him. 

It was an odd distinction he’d made a long time ago now, something which had helped him recognise who he was as Hiseo. 

Hiseo didn’t feel like a fraud. He didn’t feel Dan, who died of cancer, getting a second chance at life. He felt like Hiseo, who had memories of a life which came before. It was a small and seemingly insignificant distinction, who he identified as, but it made a difference between feeling like a foreigner trying to pretend his way through a second chance, instead as a Yugakure native who had memories of something before. 

He’d never told anyone what he knew, not that he really had anyone to tell. He got on well enough with his classmates, but it wasn’t as though he’d invite anyone to hang out with him at home – he wasn’t close with anyone. His parents had always accepted him as he was, and eccentric-unwelcome or not, kids were diverse enough that his quirks hadn’t been seen as anything to worry about. His odd development had just been seen as a partial prodigy – he had struggled with language but seemed to understand complex concepts and the like once he knew the words. 

Otherwise Hiseo had just been a normal, quiet kid who never seemed to get worked up. He might cry if he got hurt in combat classes but never seemed to make a big deal of it like most other kids did, just carried on with tears on his face. 

His teachers liked him well enough judging by his report card and their interactions with him – he was an easy student to have. Diligent, unobtrusive. A few had flagged him for being great at undercover work if he was interested, because of how easy he was to overlook – teachers could leave him to his own devices knowing they didn’t have to worry about him, and realise they’d gone through the whole day without looking at him once because he rarely drew attention to himself and rarely needed extra help. 

You’d have thought a boy with dark blue hair and eyes would stand out more, but his colours were just muted enough not to stand out. He usually kept his hair in a low ponytail hanging over one shoulder, just like his mother, and his skin tone was lightly tanned – not as much as his father, but not near as pale as his mother either. 

All in all he didn’t really stand out, which meant that his teachers noticed him but the other students didn’t. It helped that he was eager to learn but not to show off and unlike his peers he spent much of his personal time investing in his future instead of playing childish games. 

The academy was a great way to connect students with teachers in different fields, and there were just so many different fields! Rather than try and cram it all into his last year, Hiseo had eagerly sought to get a jump start where he could. 

Unfortunately that had meant that he’d gotten stuck helping his academy teachers at first, carrying tools for classes the next day and marking test papers for the younger years. It turned out to be fairly interesting seeing the other side of things so it wasn’t a wasted venture, but while seeing the psychology behind certain decisions, not to mention the small jutsu that got used (to prevent cheating, monitor a room and so on) were interesting, he had no interest in teaching children himself. 

He wasn’t about to get taken out on patrol or anything at his age, but his efforts were rewarded with some training sessions from different teachers who held in-village jobs. It meant he spent one of his free days working in a florist, and another shadowing a guard who worked in the jail. Another afternoon he intensely regretted his decision as a paper-pusher in the mission office desk. He’d already spent one life wasting away in the back rooms, spending all day in the same eight square feet, he wasn’t about to do that again. 

Three weeks later he was learning from one of the in-village shinobi who kept the peace in the onsen. 

Unlike his other roles, this one required him to adjust his appearance so he would not stand out, which meant wearing kimono. Hiseo would never have thought that he’d be comfortable wearing kimono. It wasn’t as restrictive as he feared though, actually was very comfortable. It could be because they were battle kimono rather than the more traditional style. Shorter at the front, easy to move in. Easier to hide weapons in too, which is why it was a style that young ninja were encouraged to use. 

It certainly made him blend in even more, made him feel a bit more at home too. He decided to adopt it more regularly in his closet rather than stick with shirts and shorts as he had before. Having so much fabric around his legs, even though it was lesser than a regular kimono for a battle kimono like his, was still odd though. He debated the merits of keeping a full kimono versus just a kimono top, whether the tradeoff was worth it. He did like the idea of having fabric to use if needed, but didn’t want to trip on it either. 

It led Hiseo to wondering whether there was any way to control the fabric so it didn’t trip him. He tried sending chakra through a strip of cloth at first and very nearly incinerated it. Clearly, this wasn’t going to be something he managed right away. 

For all that he’d practiced and learned, using chakra was probably always going to be a little bit odd to him. He could use it – they had the leaf exercise just like Konoha, though they’d be moving to water walking soon – it was more advanced for pre-genin but a requirement to pass the genin test because of the nature of their work (they had to be able to intervene in the hot springs if anything happened, and many were large enough that they’d be no use if they couldn’t walk on water). 

He didn’t mind the limitation personally, it made sense to ensure that the village’s shinobi were qualified to do their jobs, and protecting the village (and its hot springs) was pretty much the basic tenet. There had even been a segment in class about the protection of the springs and the ways that people had tried to destroy them in the past (one enemy nin had used acid and it had gone horribly terribly wrong, but it didn’t stop people from trying the same thing sometimes even though everyone involved the first time had died awfully). 

Now eleven years old, his ninja studies were focusing more on practical skills instead of book learning. He wasn’t free of classrooms entirely of course, but lessons had shifted from predominately classroom based, perhaps 80-90% so, to practicals taking the lead at 60-70%. 

He finally learned how to use chakra to do more than stick things to his hands (and face, and feet, and anywhere else they were told to stick leaves to for however long). Nothing dramatic at first – they were taught the campfire jutsu. A simple spark-making technique, it was simple enough for even water-natured ninja to learn. They also learned a camouflage jutsu to help them blend in (and spy), along with the henge. 

Hiseo struggled to wrap his head around how jutsu worked, but that didn’t actually stop him from learning how to do it. While the mechanics of it still seemed ludicrous (he basically imagined coating himself in chakra in order to manage the henge & camouflage jutsus) he had no trouble using the techniques. If anything it was surprisingly easy – easy to move the chakra rather, not necessarily to get the result he wanted. 

Using henge, he was only half-aware of the actual result of it; could feel himself holding the chakra in place. Unfortunately, while the coating of chakra over his body to change its appearance was successful, it was much more difficult to imprint detail onto the blank canvas he’d painted over himself. To that end, his henge tended to have very blank faces, if they had facial details at all, and lacked nearly any real detail like freckles or blemishes. It was easier to make a copy of someone else, but he had a habit of only filling in the detail of their faces from the front – looking at the henge from an angle, especially behind, left it blank or strange. It wasn’t like he was able to see his own henge either, so had no idea what it looked like when he used it. The was a way of being able to tell from the chakra he was coating himself in, but Hiseo certainly couldn’t seem to do that. 

On the other hand, camouflage was much easier, blending in to what was already around him rather than trying to draw a new self over his own. 

Hiseo actually found using chakra to be quite easy – he had worried that he’d not be able to use it at all but clearly that wasn’t the case. His problem was that he couldn’t seem to gauge his use of chakra – sending it out was easy, but knowing how much to use was harder without practice. He wasn’t sure how people seemed to be able to tell how much chakra to use – it wasn’t that he had too much chakra like Naruto, or two little control, also like Naruto. Hiseo could adjust how much he sent easily enough, he just didn’t know how to tell how much he needed to use without obvious visible results. 

For the basic techniques he was learning at least, it seemed to be him controlling how much chakra he used. The techniques didn’t drain him – like casting spells in an rpg. He had to figure out how much to use himself, not just rely on ‘casting’ the ‘spell’ and it taking what it needed. 

Most techniques didn’t give much feedback to gauge results with, at least with the techniques he was learning. If his leaf wasn’t on fire and it did stick, the amount of chakra that it could take varied, so it was hard to be ‘precise’. Things like the henge were harder, because he could move the chakra over his body, but couldn’t tell what it looked like without a mirror to see himself from all sides. He wasn’t sure if he just needed a stronger image to imagine over him or if everyone else could tell from their chakra what their jutsu showed. His henge looked like a doll when he disguised himself as a person, the skin too smooth. It wasn’t as obvious if he henged into a potted plant at least, which was meant to be harder. 

Once he started getting used to using his chakra, it seemed natural to just emit it now and then, sending it into the air around him, or whatever he was holding or touching. Of course that got him in trouble sometimes since chakra could damage things that weren’t meant to conduct the energy, not to mention making him something of a beacon in class when he did it. 

He took to trying to limit his chakra to his clothing instead – once he’d bought some appropriate clothing to do so anyway. (The first time he’d started doing it habitually he’d been uncomfortably surprised when his clothes started falling off him, deteriorated by his chakra repeatedly imbued into the threads. His new clothing was much more durable.) 

It wasn’t like he could feel his chakra when he sent it out – he wasn’t a sensor (rather the opposite if anything, to his chagrin) but he liked being able to control things around him, and spreading his chakra through it allowed him to do so. 

His father thought it was hilarious, when he started doing it. 

“Chakra has its own signature, something unique to each of us.” He said. “So when I step into the house and can feel your chakra flaring all over the place, it feels kind of like having a pet that’s marking its territory.” He’d guffawed, laughing louder at Hiseo’s slight flush. 

While he didn’t want to come across like a poorly trained house cat, he still couldn’t help but spread his chakra around to have some control of his environment. He at least was getting better at concealing it, as well as in gauging how much he needed to use. 

“Being able to easily thread or coat things with your chakra is a useful skill though.” His father, Hayato, mused once he’d settled down. “If you have a good amount of chakra you could potentially use ninjutsu like ‘hiding in the steam’ or some equivalent. You can also use it for marking a path – leaving a trail for others to track you.” Of course that could let enemies track him too, so he had to be careful about it. 

It wasn’t often that his father took the time to teach him new things, rather than just help him with whatever the academy was teaching him, so it was nice to have some guidance in how he could develop. 

Not all his lessons were quite so pleasant however. 

One of the hardest lessons Hiseo endured was a lesson on difficult customers. Hardly what you’d think of as a ‘difficult lesson for shinobi’ but it had been harder than the first time he had to catch and kill a bunny by far. It was held by a teacher who openly scorned them, disparaged them at every turn. Four of Hiseo’s classmates broke down in tears in the first five minutes – before the teacher had even properly begun the exercise. 

It was obvious to Hiseo that the exercise began the moment the sensei entered the classroom. That didn’t make it any easier to endure the slurs or casual cruelty. They were ninja, but also children, and as much as they needed to learn how to maintain the polite façade in the face of such words, that was easier said than done. Even Hiseo struggled, and very little got to him. 

The second day, when the class resumed but with the focus of dealing with difficult coworkers, Hiseo just walked out. 

He could deal with shitty customers if he had to, but he’d struggled with cruelty coming from people he was meant to trust or work with in his last life. His solution? To not trust or work with them. His teacher, when he was confronted about it later, acknowledged it as a sound strategy but not always a viable one. Hiseo was adamant though – he wasn’t going to tolerate being treated that way and expected to continue working with those people. Perhaps it was weak of him, but while he was laid back and unbothered now, he hadn’t always been so and he knew the fast track to self harm was to be surrounded by people who treated you poorly. He wasn’t going to risk being put in that position again. 

He did get some flack for it from the other students, mostly because of his rep of being unflappable – they questioned whether it was a façade - his cool demeanor. It wasn’t like he cared for their opinion though. They may eventually be his comrades, but none of them were really his friend and he could get by with that. As long as they didn’t try and make trouble for him he didn’t care. 

Hiseo was something of a loner, though he worked fine with others when he had to he was more of a teacher’s pet if anything. 

He mostly just wanted to learn, and while he did miss out on friendship with his peers he wasn’t unhappy with his life. Learning to be a ninja was fascinating. Watching Naruto had shown him only a small part of what that meant – mostly the ‘massive attacks’ aspect of it in truth, but there was so much more to it than that. It was like Kakashi had said: “Look underneath the underneath.” He finally had some understanding of what that meant. 

Being taught rather than being expected to just magically know helped though *cough* Kakashi *cough*. 

Regardless of his doubts of Konoha’s sensei, Hiseo was definitely thriving under Yugakure’s. 

It helped that he was motivated and the memories he held from his previous life gave him a maturity he likely otherwise wouldn’t. Knowing that, regardless of where he was in the timeline, the future he knew of held a great deal of danger. As much as he enjoyed his peaceful life in Hot Springs, he doubted it’d last forever. 

Despite his best efforts, Hiseo hadn’t been able to gather much information to verify the knowledge he held. Only the broad strokes of history were shared in class so far, not the small details which much of his knowledge hinged upon and especially not for other villages. Hidden villages did keep secrets and despite its information trade it didn’t share all its information with its ninja, so he couldn’t gauge it based on solid information. He learned a lot about the history of Yugakure, but that didn’t help him figure out where the timeline was because almost all of his knowledge was about Konoha, especially during Naruto’s genin timeline. 

He did know Konoha had suffered some severe strife a few years back, but whether that was the Kyuubi seal breaking, one war or another, or an invasion he couldn’t confirm. It didn’t really narrow it down. The last great war was over around the time of his birth, but Hiseo couldn’t remember enough details about it to know which one it was, or how many wars there were in Naruto in the first place. It wasn’t like he’d read up on the Naruto-verse history before he got here, unfortunately. 

It wouldn’t be for another year that Hiseo would learn where in the timeline he was. As their history classes continued he discovered that there had already been several shinobi wars, so he was further along the timeline than he’d thought or hoped. He wished his own memory was better however because he couldn’t remember how many wars there had been in Naruto. The classes only skimmed most of it because it was no longer relevant – not to mention a good chunk of the information was suppressed to keep secrets, so they didn’t necessarily know the names of key players which would allow him to pin it down. 

It was frustrating having the information so close but just out of reach. He could probably find out more if he dug deeper, but it wasn’t just having the information that mattered, it was being able to recognise the relevance of it. He’d looked in the past for information about Konoha but much of it came down to vague information that didn’t make much sense without context. Like, the sannin existed, but Hiseo couldn’t remember when that happened, or when they fell apart, and that wasn’t the sort of information that Konoha would want spread around so it might have already happened and was kept quiet. At least it gave him a vague awareness of when he was, that the sannin were around. 

So for the most part Hiseo focused on things he could work on instead of figuring out where he was in a timeline that may or may not be accurate anyway. He wanted to learn everything; how to cook traditional food from his parents, how to pass information in secret, or notice someone else trying to do the same. In the introductory class on elemental jutsu Hiseo learned that he was primarily water natured (not uncommon in Yu), but found wind transformation second easiest. 

The students were only taught the very basics of elemental jutsu, just their existence and one extremely basic jutsu for each type. The spark-making jutsu for fire they already covered, a tiny breeze making jutsu (for blowing out candles and passing notes), the lightning spark which just felt like a bee sting, and a water jutsu that dispersed steam from the air. They weren’t required to be able to perform all of them, but at least to try. 

He even continued to work on making his compulsion to push out chakra into something useful – his parents started to buy him high quality clothing that could handle chakra so he could begin learning to use it more practically. 

The first time he used his trailing kimono sleeves to wrap around a combatant’s wrists during a spar while he punched the kid in the face, it gained him a few interested looks for sure. 

This idyllic life was never going to last forever though, and one day it all came crashing down. It was a morning like any other and Hiseo was just on his way to the academy when the sound of screaming and raucous laughter broke out nearby. 

That answered that question then, about where in the timeline he was. Looked like Hidan was going to start his slaughter right about now. 

Shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: So I’m not sure how I’ve gotten this far in with basically no actual conversation happening. My writing style is really awkward sometimes, exposition heavy, and actual talking just isn’t really happening for me >_> Sorry. Will keep trying. This just seems to be how I write now?


	4. Chapter 4

It was a slaughter. 

Hidan cut down anyone in his path, targeting the ninja primarily but he seemed happy to spill the blood of any poor soul who was within his range. He was obscenely fast, wiping out swaths of fleeing civilians and attacking ninja with wide swipes of his scythe that took out everything in the direction he struck. 

The grey haired shinobi wasn’t carrying the red scythe Hiseo knew he had later, but the more standard looking single-bladed one he had now was bad enough. The other ninja was so fast to Hiseo’s eyes that he could barely be seen save for when paused to watch his victim fall to the ground in a spray of blood. 

Unfortunately Hiseo had been close to the initial attack and had been swept up in a wide-ranged attack with several others. One of the ninja who had been a just a touch closer went flying back in two halves as the blow cut her in half. Hidan’s attack caught Hiseo too, and he was blown back by the force of it, hitting the dusty street hard on his side. It took him out at the legs, blasting him back with the sheer force of the attack. So flooded with adrenaline he barely even felt it, besides suddenly being unable to manipulate his legs and feeling slick blood coating his thighs. 

Hiseo had never seen so much blood. It coated everything, everywhere he looked there seemed to be blood spattering up the walls, spilling into the hot springs. By now it was clear from the screaming that evacuation was ongoing, and possibly more successful for those at the edges of the village – those in the village proper were quickly being wiped out. More Yugakure ninja leaped in to hold off the scythe wielder, while the call went out for reinforcements. 

The ninja served as a distraction at best. From where he was stuck trying to crawl away, clamping one hand over his bleeding legs, he could see as one after another fell with a shout or scream. 

It was at that point Hiseo realised that not all of his victims were dead. Not many, even, though given the number of limbs strewn around blood loss would be taking most in the next few minutes. 

“Your slaughter is my offering to Jashin!” Hidan shrieked. “This worthless fucking Village will serve Him as my first true oblation! Suffering under his gaze is all you cowards are good for!” 

He seemed to be reveling in his actions, taking the opportunity of a lack of combat-capable foes in order to deliver some personal attention to whichever poor soul who was closest. Hidan drew a seal out of blood beneath the body and Hiseo couldn’t bring himself to look once the screaming began in earnest. Apparently that guy was ‘worthy of experiencing that kind of death’ as he made a better sacrifice for Jashin. 

He’d never heard someone scream in pain like that before – like they were in agony. Not even after months in hospital had he ever heard anything like it. 

He more determinedly dragged himself away, panting in terror now. Hiseo made it out of direct line of sight of Hidan (not that it mattered, the asshole was fast and the screaming was loud enough to be heard as if he was still right there) dragging himself away to find some cover, something that would hide him so the ex-Yugakure shinobi wouldn’t come for him too. A good chunk of the buildings had been knocked down so getting out of sight was no easy feat, but he managed soon enough. 

Another brief blessing came his way in the form of a platoon of jounin, probably from the jounin lounge in the adminstration building. The sounds of fighting (instead of slaughter) picked up and Hiseo was bought enough time to hastily bandage his bleeding legs and calm down enough to pulse chakra through his arms – enough to throw himself forward like some kind of demented bunny hop. 

He did this several more times, gaining as much distance from the battleground as he could. It was a good thing too because the destruction to the village was starting to spread as larger attacks were used by both sides. 

Hiseo was just barely clear of the combat area when the shockwaves coming from the fight started to bring down the buildings near him, sending up dust in large clouds. The sounds of fighting sounded further away as the combatants cleared the area for somewhere less precarious and Hiseo would’ve let out a sigh of relief if he wasn’t in so much pain and aware that they could come back any moment. 

At this point the destruction was so much he had no chance of getting away if they came back so he settled in to hide himself. Not a difficult task since he was covered in blood and dust and looked like another corpse against a nearby building. 

The biggest problem he had that he could actually do something about were his legs. Once he’d wedged himself under some stable-looking debris he knew that he had to do more than just bind them – the wrappings were already bled through and he was becoming woozy with blood loss. Hiseo likely only had a few minutes before he’d pass out or at least be too weak to be move. He couldn’t rely on using his chakra-infused clothes to bind his leg; they’d just loosen again if he lost consciousness. 

He always kept needle and thread in his pockets, in case he needed to repair his clothes. 

It was awkward and horribly painful – he was using a sewing needle, not a proper stitching needle with the curved shape. His stitching was awful, but it only needed to be a temporary patch job to stem the worst of it. The cuts were deep and wide, gouging into the front of his thighs and curving around the side on his right one. If the blow had been any greater Hidan would have cut through the bone but as it was, he didn’t think that had happened. Either way he wasn’t able to stand and he didn’t want to imagine how he’d looked, hauling himself through the air with his legs half hanging off behind him. 

That was the thought he passed out on. 

xxxxxxxxxxxx 

 

When Hiseo woke up again, he was in the hospital. He was laying on a bed in a ward filled to bursting. It clearly hadn’t been too long because he could still hear shouting and screaming in the halls – too many people had flooded in, and there weren’t enough staff to care for them. Hiseo himself was still in a fair amount of pain, but could tell from the crisp white bandages around his thighs that he had already had at least a preliminary healing and wasn’t in danger of dying. He was still pretty woozy however, and must have dozed off again because when he was aware next it was much quieter and there was someone in his room, tending to his legs. 

“Ah, you’re awake. Good.” The med-nin had a deep voice for all that he was rather soft-spoken. Hiseo just looked up at him, quickly returning to his senses. The doctor examined him while he did so, humming quietly. He looked worn thin, tired but focused and Hiseo kept quiet so as not to make this day any more shitty for the stressed medic. 

“Your legs will heal.” The man said simply, and Hiseo let out a relieved sigh. “The scarring will be pretty awful though – the stitching job you did was shit but it probably saved your life. It’ll take a few days for the muscles and everything to settle though, so you’re on strict bed and wheelchair limits, which means you’re not going anywhere for now.” There was probably still a lot of rubble outside so he couldn’t just wheel himself out like he otherwise would, and would just get in the way instead. He’d be better off staying here until the cleanup progressed a little. 

“I’ll stay here for now.” He assured the man and received a short nod in response. It wasn’t like Hiseo would be able to help much in his current condition, though he extended an offer to the med-nin all the same, if there was anything he could do, his head and hands were just fine, it was only his legs that were screwed. If there was some way he could help, it was his duty to do so. 

Of course he came to regret that decision a short while later when his room filled with misplaced children in need of distraction, as ‘any way I can help’ got put to the test. He couldn’t move much, but tried to keep the kids attention with stories or simple games. Most of the kids dumped in his room were too young to be put to use outside, or had injuries that stopped them. Most of them were still dirty, with tear-streaks on their faces but thankfully his little room had a small wash basin so at least there was that. 

Hiseo had never been great with kids and was still in some pain, but he did his best and honestly with how shell-shocked many of the kids were it probably didn’t matter how shit he might be. They latched on to him anyway. Two of the kids were just toddlers but had been covered in their parents blood. Akio and Ami both had rich brown hair and wouldn’t let go of eachothers hands, their parents had been cut in half and only their shortness had saved them from death themselves. Hiseo had to get some of the other kids to help wash off the blood and dirt, it was so caked on. 

There wasn’t much he could do for most of the kids to be honest, except keep them company and try to entertain them with stories and songs. Many of them had lost their family in front of their eyes and wouldn’t stop crying, but he did his best and at least it kept them all in one place and out of the way while the village could be fixed. 

Still, being stuck bed-bound made him feel even more helpless as his charges wailed for lost family. He couldn’t even really help them, couldn’t soothe them unless they clambered up onto the hospital bed with him for cuddles (which he was good at, at least). 

It was horrifying, but giving in to that horror wouldn’t change anything, and it wouldn’t help. So Hiseo focused on the kids, even though his room was never without the sound of a child crying for the two days he was stuck in there. 

By the time he was able to leave the hospital in a wheelchair several days after the attack, he’d rather gained a collection of wayward children. Only a couple had been collected by parents or other family members, leaving him still with half a dozen kids including Akio and Ami. Most of them followed Hiseo out the door like ducklings and if he was able to think of the future without despair he would have worried that they’d latched on to him and wouldn’t let go. Either way he was on kid duty until someone relieved him of it, or errant family members were found. 

In the meantime his house turned out to be intact and so he left his information along with that of the kids at the hospital in case anyone came looking. 

When he got to his house it looked normal, undamaged by the fighting across the other side of the village. The kids all clustered around him, poking around the little front yard as he unlocked the door and carefully wheeled himself inside. It was as if nothing had happened. His house was untouched, completely still. But there were no sign of his parents having returned in the few days since the attack and he already knew from the hospital that they hadn’t been admitted. 

He wasn’t surprised to learn that neither of his parents had survived, but that didn’t make it any less of a blow. The time of the attack coincided with his mother selling wares at the market, and his father was a ninja, had probably tried to fight Hidan. There was a small chance his father was alive and simply hadn’t had the time to rest and come home, but the chance was slim. So many had thrown themselves against the traitor, so many had died. Hiseo still didn’t understand how one person could be so strong, to decimate the village. Even knowing that there were other, similarly strong people who did or would exist didn’t make it any less baffling. How could one person cause so much death and destruction so quickly? How could Hiseo let this happen? He should have said something, taken the risk, so many dead and injured because he just couldn’t- he’d been too cautious, trying to get a feel for this world as if he was safe, they were all safe while he did so. 

He didn’t have time to dwell though, even as he felt his eyes well with tears. He had kids to take care of now (what the fuck, he had kids?) so he latched onto that quickly because otherwise he’d have to acknowledge the truth of his empty house. And who was guilty of letting all this happen. 

The upstairs of the house was inaccessible to him for the time being, so he focused on getting the downstairs habitable. He had a follow up appointment at the hospital for the day after next and might be free of his wheelchair then but for now he wasn’t to try walking without it. He focused on keeping busy, on the children, on what he could do and not missed opportunities. 

He’d taken seven kids with him, which meant sleeping arrangement were going to be tough. Even if many of them doubled up, there were only so many futons in the house and Hiseo was going to need one for himself brought downstairs. Worse, most of the kids were little, so hauling around futons wasn’t going to be super easy. Along with Akio and Ami (both about 2) were Yuuto, (9) Kawahiko, (7) Yumi, (5) Himawari (10) and Kimi (8). Himawari was the oldest but not a ninja academy student, while Kimi was in class a few years behind Hiseo. Hopefully with Himawari’s age and Kimi’s strength and training from ninja classes the two of them would be able to haul some futons around without too much trouble. Hiseo assigned them the task and directions to do so, sending off Yuuto to help them if they needed it or to gather blankets otherwise. 

That done, he was left with the remaining four, who were still poking around his house with the exception of the twins who hadn’t left his side (making it awkward to turn his wheelchair). 

There came the next problem: they were all absolutely filthy, Hiseo included. While he’d been somewhat cleaned when his wounds were dealt with, his hair was rank and it had been several days now since he’d had a proper wash, beyond his wounds being kept clean. Not to mention the laundry that would need doing for his dirty clothes and that of the kids. He hoped his parents had kept some of the stuff he wore when he was younger, otherwise he’d not have a change for the children and they’d be stuck wearing what they’d come in with. 

The twins were too little to help much if he were honest, so he assigned Yumi and Kawahiko to washing machine duty. Giving instructions to kids was definitely not how he thought he’d get experience leading others, but it seemed to be that way, and at least they were mostly obedient so far. 

Left alone with Ami and Akio, Hiseo had them both strip so Kawahiko could put their clothes in the laundry, along with Hiseo’s own clothes that were in a little bag beneath his wheelchair. That done, he wheeled through to the bathroom with the kids following, just managing to dodge the futon that was falling down the stairs courtesy of the other kids. 

Thankfully the bathroom was on the ground floor, so Hiseo was able to lead the way inside and start running the bath for those that wanted it. While that was filling, he instructed the twins to wash off in the shower section so they could wipe away the dirt and wash their hair, keeping a close eye on them so they didn’t slip, not that there was much he could do if they did without getting out of his wheelchair. 

It wasn’t long before Kawahiko and Yumi trotted in, both nude as their clothes were in the washing machine. The joined the twins under the shower and Hiseo was able to ease back with more able-bodied (although young) people to watch over the youngest. 

Something of a train started up then, as the oldest three kids joined them in the now rather crammed bathroom. The younger four were mostly done in the shower and so Hiseo encouraged them to play in the large tub for a bit, while the older kids got their turn to clean up. In his duty of retrieving blankets, Yuuto had blessedly grabbed some towels once he’d heard them all in the bathroom. His initiative earned him a hair ruffle to his golden mop from Hiseo, which seemed to encourage him since the younger boy seemed to take it as being elected as Hiseo’s second. 

So far Yuuto hadn’t said anything since he’d been dropped in Hiseo’s lap the day before, so he didn’t know if he was on the ninja-track or civilian track in classes, but he seemed helpful and had good instincts. The boy also apparently had some experience with injuries or possibly ninja parents, because he knew what to look for when it came for Hiseo’s turn in the shower – the clean plastic wrap that was often found in bathrooms to wrap around wounds to keep them dry. It was easy enough to get out of his clothes and get his thighs wrapped with Yuuto to help, and the kid even stuck around to help Hiseo wash some of the more awkward spots like his back and feet. 

Soon enough he was clean and the other kids were either splashing around in the tub or had climbed out and were wrapped in towels. Unfortunately Akio and Ami were doing neither of these things; apparently the normalcy of having a bath had helped them relax and forget some of their upset, because they were now running naked around the house with shrieks of amusement. 

That seemed to be the signal for the rest of them, and the previous noise level of ‘not too loud’ seemed to vanish into nothingness as kids shouted for the twins to stop running, or joined in the fun. 

Hiseo couldn’t begrudge them – it was like some of the tension had lifted. The problems they had weren‘t gone, but it didn’t mean they couldn’t enjoy themselves when the opportunity arose, and the twins especially were too young for much to keep them down for long (not after hours of solid crying over several days at least). 

It was mayhem in the house for a short while after that, but thankfully there was some order to be had from the older kids, even if sometimes they slipped into running after errant children shouting after them. A few of them found clothes in his room which fit him too, which the number of naked rampaging children decreased a little. 

Luckily Himawari knew how to cook, at least basic things, so Hiseo supervised her in the kitchen and helped her find things. Within an hour she had a simple curry cooked up from what was found in the fridge and freezer, and Kimi-chan had laid the table (cramming the plates on since it wasn’t designed for so many). 

Like her name, Himawari had bright, sunflower coloured hair, a few shades off from Yuuto and much wavier than his. Kimi’s hair was long and black, and she seemed to require it be brushed a significant amount after a bath, so she was currently doing so in Hiseo’s bedroom. The twins had brown hair down to their shoulders, and like Kawahiko’s short teal hair didn’t require much extra work. Hiseo could usually get away with a quick brush through his blue hair after a shower, but hadn’t bothered for the moment since his hairbrush was in use (and upstairs). 

Yumi had tight dark ringlets that Hiseo had no idea how to handle, but the little girl didn’t seem too fussed about doing anything with it once it was washed so it didn’t seem to be an issue for now at least. 

It took a bit of doing to corral all of the children, keep them distracted and try and adhere to whatever post-bath or pre-dinner routines they had, but luckily the food would keep warm in the pots while that happened. Especially since there was still post-bath time nudity ongoing from the more evasive of the kids. 

Dinner was just about to be served when there was a knock on the front door, followed by the sound of stampeding children as answering it apparently became a race. Once opened, the sound of a child’s shriek of joy rang through the house, as apparently Yumi’s parents came to retrieve her. Unfortunately Yumi was one of the children who hadn’t acquired clothes in the meantime, though Hiseo himself thankfully was fully dressed along with most of the older kids by now, who had also managed to catch and wrestle the twins into some shirts of Hiseo’s that hung like dresses but were better than nothing. More than half the household were clothed, Hiseo would take it. It was hard to chase them in a wheelchair after all. 

“Would you like to come in for some dinner?” Hiseo offered politely, figuring that the two tired-looking ninja holding on to an ecstatic Yumi would not necessarily have anything at home right now. The pair looked like they wanted to take their kid and go but if it’d taken them this long to retrieve her, it was probably for a reason. 

Thus the household gained even more dinner guests – to the point where there was no more space at the table even for plates (technically bowls at this point, he’d run out of plates too) and so they had to be put on a kitchen counter for serving. With her parents there, Yumi was even settled enough for them to find her some old clothes of Hiseo’s to put on, while the washing machine worked on the dirty clothes she’d been wearing in. 

In the end most of the smaller kids sat and ate on the floor with the food in their laps, giving up the table to the adults and older kids, with Hiseo off to the side with his wheelchair. 

Over the dinner table, they explained. 

“We were sent to chase the traitor off, out of the country entirely.” Misume-san, Yumi’s mother told them. “Both of us were injured in the fight and it took us a while to return. I imagine that Yumi was with my sister when he first struck...” The way she trailed off, her sister probably hadn’t made it, which was why she’d been dumped on Hiseo. 

“The hospital is still over run and we technically are still on the clock as light duty because of our recovery and the need for all able-bodied.” Misume-san continued. “Thankfully Yumi’s details were kept with the receptionist so she gave us your address.” She shifted in her seat and gave a bow to Hiseo, who clutched his bowl in surprise, as if he might have fallen out of his chair if he weren’t practically glued in. 

“You took care of our Yumi, despite your own difficulties, without complaint. We expected to greet her at the hospital, likely in great distress after days of being unattended, but instead find her here, clean and safe, with a smile on her face.” Likely because she’d still been winning the clothes-evasion game, but still. “You have my gratitude, Hiseo-san, as well as those of you who helped.” She gave each of the children a nod, even the littler ones, who seemed shyly pleased. 

“It was no problem.” Hiseo assured, thrown from the whole thing. He’d really just kinda gone with it when the kids were thrown his way, carried on when they never left. It gave him something worthwhile to do, and honestly he’d been surprised at how it’d worked out, since he didn’t have much experience looking after other kids, especially ones so little or post-traumatic event. 

“Aside from being a bit of a bathtime-bandit, Yumi was no problem to look after.” Said girl blushed but her parents chuckled, used to her shenanigans probably. 

“Well, we will take our leave for now. Thank you for your hospitality.” Both parents stood, and Yumi went with them, assuring Hiseo they could walk themselves out considering his circumstances (wheelchair plus lots of kids did not a good host make) after retrieving Yumi’s wet clothes to hang up to dry at home. 

By the time that was done, the kids were tearfully saying their goodbyes and it was only Himawari organising them for dinnertime clean up that prevented more than some sniffling. Seeing Yumi taken away by her parents had only brought home how there were still six kids here waiting for their own families, seven if you counted Hiseo himself. 

All they could do was wait and hope that their loved ones survived and came to them however. 

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX 

The next few days were busy and stressful, looking after the remaining six kids, but it kept Hiseo from focusing on his injuries or the void where his parents should be, so it wasn’t a bad thing. His birthday passed unnoticed by him. As the days went by, Hiseo had his hospital appointment and was advised to continue with the wheelchair for a few more days, but he could stand if he absolutely had to. The kids had all followed him to the hospital for his appointment, hoping for news from their families. 

It turned out that Himawari had family out of the village that had been contacted and the hospital were waiting for a response from to collect her, and Kimi and Kawahiko both had grandparents in the village who would be taking them in, but their homes had been damaged in the attack and they were still in the hospital and had to get their homes in order first. Hiseo shrugged when he was asked if he’d mind keeping them in his care for a little longer, but took both kids to visit their family in the hospital in the meanwhile. 

Unfortunately those who were less valuable to the village were lower down on the priority list for treatment so their grandparents were forced to heal with only minimal help, much like Hiseo himself as only an academy student. If he were a full ninja he’d be back on his feet right now, but there with a limited amount of healing possible before the healers taxed themselves out, he just wasn’t worth the extra recovery boost. 

The group of children returned home after that, some with the knowledge that they had family to take them soon, and some without. 

Xxxxxxxxx 

There was a meeting of the surviving shinobi, a little over a week after Hidan had come and gone. By then much of the reconstruction was underway, and those who were going to survive his attack were no longer in urgent care. Hiseo was also down to only three remaining children in his house, as all the rest had been collected by family or friends, leaving him with Yuuto and the twins. Hiseo had been forced to leave the twins and Yuuto in the care of his neighbour while they went to the meeting. 

Yugakure had never been a major village, but the number of shinobi could be counted on two hands. There were a number of academy students like himself who had joined the meeting too, wanting to know about the future of the shinobi forces and he could see that he wasn’t alone in his shock at their dwindled numbers. Hidan had truly destroyed the hidden village. 

“As you can see, there are too few of us to continue Yugakure.” An older ninja, clearly the spokesman announced, expression grim. “Even if we were allowed the chance to recover, which is unlikely given the popularity and value of the hotsprings, even with the entire crop of surviving academy students we still wouldn’t be able to fill even the bare essential roles.” 

This clearly wasn’t news to most of the ninja, but that didn’t prevent the murmur of misery, anger and despair from breaking out from a few of them. 

They just weren’t strong or numerous enough to sustain the village, even to a limited degree. Hidan had ruined their numbers. 

“Yugakure has been pacifist for some time now. We protected the land of hot springs and functioned as information brokers and spies. I propose that, for those who want to stay in Yugakure, we shall no longer be known as a ninja village, but instead merely as guards for Yu. There’s few enough of us for even that, and its very possible that the land of Hot Springs will be occupied and us survivors killed by whoever wants to take over.” The man let out a sigh, and a younger ninja stepped forward. 

“We do have other choices. With the dissolution of the ninja of Yugakure, we are all free to leave and seek employment elsewhere, including other hidden villages. There’s no guarantee that they’ll accept any of us, but even if they give us the shitty jobs, some of the major villages especially will probably take us in at least.” 

“The academy students are slightly better off than us.” She continued, turning to the small cluster of students. There were so few of them, it was no wonder the ninja had no hope of replenishing its ranks. 

“Its even more likely that you’ll be integrated into whichever village you choose, if you choose to leave. Otherwise you could stay here in some other role or try being a guard – you’ll have a better chance than us of being overlooked if someone does decide to purge the ninja here and take over themselves.” 

“This is a big decision.” The man spoke again. “And you’ve no need to decide right away. Just be aware that an occupying force could arrive at any time.” 

With that comforting remark, most of the group broke away into smaller clusters. Hiseo stood alone, idly wondering what to do with himself now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Dun dun duuuuhnn. 
> 
> So finding information about Hidan pre-Akatsuki is a bit iffy, so if I’ve flubbed it, forgive me. After I wrote this I read that he joined the Jashinist religion after he defected from Yugakure but couldn’t confirm the info from myself so I’m going on the assumption that he found the religion first and it spurred him into action against his village. 
> 
> Also I know I have been really light on Hiseo’s relationship with his parents – that was mostly because as I was writing the earlier chapters I was really struggling to develop them and the story kinda progressed past that point. Eventually I might go back and change it, but for right now I’m going to continue since I have lots of future stuff I’m working on that I am having an easier time with.


	5. Chapter 5

Steam 

 

Chapter 5 

 

He was twelve years old and his Village was gone. 

Yugakure was gone. 

Technically the hot springs themselves survived and the civilians still lived there, but his home was gone, his family, and his Hidden Village. It really was just a tourist trap now, had become the thing Hidan had hated it for. 

He journeyed with a fairly large group of mixed villagers, shinobi and a few academy students. A lot of people had wanted to leave after things had settled in Yu, fearing the village defenceless without a sufficient shinobi force or just unwilling to stay after the massacre. As Konoha was one of the ‘nicer’ villages there was a larger caravan heading that way, and he was just one of many orphans being taken care of by the convoy, though most had been taken in by family. 

That was right. Orphan. 

His father had fallen trying to stop Hidan like so many of their shinobi, and his mother’s body was found at the market, where the attack had started. Hiseo had literally been two streets away from where his parents were killed, unaware of their fates as he dragged himself to safety with two slashed legs. 

His legs were healed now, though there was a horizontal scar across both of them that peeked out when he wore shorts. The cuts had been pretty deep, down to the bone but had healed well enough that he wouldn’t see any handicap in the future. He’d had to spend a fair chunk of the walk to Konoha riding a cart or on the back of a shinobi so as not to overtax his legs, but as long as he was careful he’d be fine in a few weeks. 

Knowing what sort of fate many of Hidan’s victims fell to, Hiseo honestly wasn’t too upset about the scars he had. He was lucky not to have permanent damage and frankly had enough trauma to carry away with him after that without adding to it. Already he was trying not to associate the scars on his legs to that brutal attack and the loss of his family and home – it may be true, but he didn’t want to be reminded of it every time he saw the off-coloured skin curling around his thighs. Instead he tried to see it as proof that he’d survived the attack, that he’d carried on anyway and could walk proudly, despite it. 

Alright, so maybe not proudly, but either way he wasn’t going to let himself be crippled, physically or emotionally. He’d already endured being displaced from everything he knew once, he could handle it happening a second time. 

In a way, his time in Yugakure had been something like Heaven for him. Peaceful, comfortable, somewhere he could enjoy his life and his pursuits towards becoming a ninja. It had been too good to last and a part of him had known it. 

Now it was time for the tribulations to truly begin. Going to Konoha would, if he was accepted there, tie him into the epicenter of where so much was going to happen in the future, if everything remained like he knew in canon. Hidan’s attack had given him a somewhat more accurate timeline as to when he was, but he still didn’t know specifically. It didn’t really matter exactly at this point though – he knew that Hidan was a player on the field, which meant he’d be in the thick of things in some capacity. 

It would have been helpful if he could remember in more detail, or had like, access to the wiki or something. Honestly he only knew the broad strokes or personal stuff from canon, and that really hadn’t helped him out so far. It was possible he shouldn’t have been so cautious, should have warned the Village about Hidan, but it was too late to think about now. He’d missed his chance, now he just had to roll on down the path laid out. 

The journey to Konoha took a long time, considering their convoy was quite large and consisted of many people who couldn’t travel at speed, plus most of their belongings. A great many carts had been built and put to use by the people planning to leave – this was no rushed exodus with only the clothes on their backs. Even Hiseo had brought along with him items from home – mementos, and more practical belongings. His family hadn’t been poor, but in a world where everything had to be hand crafted, it wasn’t as easy as just moving and buying new things. Objects were built to last, since there were no factories to churn out cheap product in large quantities. Not to say it was all good quality – peddlers still tried to pass over shit wares but most of what Hiseo’s parents had owned were sturdy, durable objects. As a merchant his mother had known plenty of tricks of the trade to make sure she wasn’t being sold a shitty product, and as a ninja his father even more so. 

So there were a lot of carts and just as many people. He wasn’t the only person who had crates in the cart filled with things from home – cooking equipment, furniture and the like. One of the travelers, Hiseo learned, was an older shinobi who was looking to retire, and he’d even brought another whole cart for himself and put his bed on it, since apparently it was the only comfortable bed the guy had been able to sleep in since he took a bad injury to the back. 

The retiree had spent much of the journey sharing a lift with Hiseo, since both were not able to walk for long periods. His name was Jun and admitted to being afraid Konoha wouldn’t take him, as an older man unable to offer much to them. All shinobi attempting to enter another village’s service would be heavily scrutinized because of issues with loyalty. Jun could only hope the information he offered would be enough to pay his entry, and he had enough money to get by for the time being at least, especially once his house back in Hot Water sold so he wouldn’t be relying on Konoha’s generosity. He offered to house Hiseo, as he had offered several other orphaned children on the road with them. 

“That’s a generous offer.” Hiseo admitted, letting out a long breath. Honestly he hadn’t given much thought to what it would be like living in Konoha if they made it in. It had been difficult living alone in his home in Yugakure once all the kids left, but he’d adjusted pretty much before they all left. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to try again at sharing a home though, or if being alone would be too difficult. 

“I’ll have to think about it.” 

“Well, no worries here or there.” Jun assured him. “Coupla the kids already said yes, so I’ll be gettin' a house with plenty a rooms either way.” Most of the kids travelling with them were part of the families going to Konoha, or were academy students like himself. Younger kids weren’t at risk to stay back in Yu, unless they wanted to be ninja at least, so there weren’t that many orphans taking this trip. Still, it would improve Jun’s chances of getting in, if he claimed to be the guardian for the few that were – it meant that Konoha would get the children as loyal shinobi, but wouldn’t have to pay for orphan housing or anything. 

Hiseo was the oldest academy student in this group though. He was almost at graduating age for Yugakure and had no doubt he’d graduate from Konoha easily. He’d likely get his own apartment once he was self-sufficient, but for now it would be better for his own people if he accepted Jun’s offer, even if it would be very short-lived given that graduating would emancipate him. It meant that for however long he was a student and probably for a while as a genin, he would live with Jun and whoever else had accepted his offer. 

Besides, he could understand the sentiment of refugees sticking together. There was no guarantee they’d be welcomed in Konoha, nor that they would settle in easily. Yugakure was a whole different country as well as a different ninja village – he had no doubt that there would be plenty of customs that wouldn’t exist in Konoha and many they didn’t know that would. There was something to be said for knowing that things would be ‘normal’ in their homes, at least. 

It was something of a sobering thought in truth – Hiseo would never again live and walk among the hot springs, down paths lit with paper lanterns. He’d not be learning from any ninja with a few hours to spare, in whatever capacity they wanted to teach. There would be no more surreptitiously greeting the ninja on onsen guard duty. Things were going to be so different, even things as simple as the duties he’d be expected to maintain, the ‘normal’ he was used to wasn’t going to exist any longer. Not that it had for a while, really. 

These thoughts kept him occupied for some time, though in truth he’d just have to wait and see how different Konoha was from home. 

======================= 

 

The gates of Konoha were large, and there was a queue of caravans waiting in line to be inspected and let in. As they neared, the caravan slowed as everyone prepared themselves, getting their paperwork in order. 

This was going to be the hard part, from what Hiseo understood. Konoha had no reason to extend aid towards them, so it was all about proving they could be of value to the Village and should be allowed to stay. It would be easier for the civilians, so they went first. Those who were shinobi or academy students like him would require a more thorough interrogation, so they hung back. 

The majority of their carts and accompanying civilians made it through the gates before it was Hiseo’s and the other Yugakure nin’s turn. 

With the civillians all dealt with, Hiseo stepped forward while Jun was heaving himself off of the cart he’d been resting in. Despite being a little dusty and dirty from days of travelling, Hiseo’s dark blue hair was as neat as ever and his expression was placid as he approached the guards. 

“I’m here to join the ninja of Konoha. I’m an ex-academy student from Yu.” 

Those words got him some strange looks from the gate guards, and he noticed a flash of movement off to the side as someone went to report him, most likely. 

Hiseo was ushered off to the side, had his papers checked, and was then led in to what was likely the T&I building. He saw Jun and a few of the others behind him receiving similar treatment as he was led away. 

It seemed as though the Konoha shinobi didn’t quite know how to respond to his apparent laid-back demeanor given the circumstances. Facing interrogation and integration after the loss of his village, anyone in his place would be either emotional or blank, but he seemed unperturbed. He wasn’t of course, but the at ease mien of Yugakure locals had always been something he’d liked, and he wasn’t about to let himself become flappable now. 

He’d spent a good chunk of the journey here having serious regrets about having kept his silence. If only he’d tried, he thought. He’d had information which could have made a difference, which could still make a difference, if only he’d shared it. He’d spent ten years in Yugakure unaware of how Hidan had been a shinobi right there at the time, just a few years older than him really. He wasn’t sure how old Hidan was but he’d looked like a teenager- Hiseo might have literally missed him by a year, as he joined the academy and Hidan left for all he knew. It was a jarring thought. 

Those thoughts didn’t help him though and he had the same problems now as then about his knowledge – whether he’d be believed, and whether it was safe to share it. 

Fortunately Hiseo had plenty of other intel to pave his way. He didn’t believe that Yugakure should truly fade to nothing and so in the course of his questioning he detailed the academy structure and lessons extensively, in the hopes that perhaps some of it would be adopted here. Yugakure was known for its quality shinobi after all, few though there were. They may be pacifist, but people had quickly learned that they were happy to put down a fight that someone else had started. Their shinobi were versatile and skilled – even their genin rank far outstripped those of other nations. 

So Hiseo gave away village secrets for a ninja village that no longer existed, and was only happy that the knowledge wouldn’t fade away. 

It wasn’t really a surprise when he was given provisional entry. Hiseo was an ideal immigrant – already trained in the basics, but not good enough to be exposed to anything really sensitive within as he was still a student. He’d be under observation by teachers and later his jounin sensei. He wasn’t a risk, basically. He wouldn’t be surprised if his loyalty was tested or his promotion delayed because of his origins, but that was fine. 

He was assigned to the academy as a final year student, given that his age matched with the peace time graduation age, if a little older. He’d have to cram some village history into his head at the very least but the tests he’d taken showed that he was more than ready to graduate by Konoha’s standards. It meant that he would be a little older than the rest of the class, but short of graduating him right away and finding somewhere to assign him as a genin, putting him in the final year was the only alternative. That way he’d graduate with the rest of the students and given a team, rather than graduating mid-season and trying to find a place for him. 

Deciding to accept Jun’s offer of guardianship saved him from a lot of extra work he would have needed to do during a time that was already busy – like finding an apartment, stocking it, things like that. Similarly, having the extra hands to help meant that Jun could focus on the paperwork while the kids moved in the furniture and went to find the closest grocery store and the like. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement. 

Like they’d thought, Jun had taken longer in interrogation than the children, but less time than the few full-fledged shinobi who had come also. While he and the two other orphans waited for him, Hiseo asked about a real estate agent in Konoha – someone who could sell them a house, preferably close to the academy, since Hiseo and all three orphans were students. 

The other two now under Jun’s guardianship were Aki and Tetsu. Aki was a little girl of seven, with dark hair up in buns, while Tetsu was a little younger, just six. Tetsu’s mother had actually been one of the academy teachers, and Tetsu was determined to follow her footsteps, even though he was young enough to stay in Yugakure as a civilian if he’d wanted and barely old enough to join Konoha‘s academy. Instead he’d come here with them, fixated on becoming an academy teacher like his mother had been. 

It took a couple of attempts to find someone willing to give him information – it seemed like no matter how friendly, Konoha shinobi were wary of giving information to foreign nin no matter that they were changing allegiance. It was a jarring change from Yu, where customer service was a priority – no one in Yu would have declined to answer his question when first asked. 

Either way he got his information eventually, once he asked the woman who helped the civilian immigrants get set up. She gave him an information packet that made Hiseo glad he was moving in with Jun because he got to delegate it over – some of the reading looked complex. It also turned out that there were house listings available – and apartments too, Hiseo requested in case the other Yugakure nin wanted the information – so they could all take a look at them once through T & I. 

In the meanwhile, Hiseo flipped through the house listings. There were actually quite a few houses available, and even some larger apartments that would fit all four of them. He shuffled the apartments to the bottom – they might be worth perusing but Yugakure didn’t have apartment buildings like Konoha did and he doubted that the Yu natives would want to adopt to that when a nice house would be far more comfortable. 

By the time Jun was released from his interview it had been over an hour and Hiseo had organised the listings by what looked best suited – big enough, and close to the academy. 

“Sorry for keeping you.” Jun said, greeting the younger kids especially warmly. Hiseo could tell there was some weariness pulling at the older ninja’s face though – no doubt his back was hurting too, but he wasn’t about to bring it up. Instead he handed over the paperwork and listings, receiving a clap on the back for his efforts. 

“Thanks kiddo. Better get to looking then hey? Can’t leave our carts by the front gate forever.” 

Technically their carts had been moved to a secured area while they were in T & I – and no doubt had been more thoroughly searched in the meantime. They’d be safe enough to stay there until they got a house picked out though. 

=================== 

It took only two hours for a decision to be made regarding their new home. They’d visited the first five on the list, once Jun had looked it over and made a few changes. The first two had been a bit too worn down for Jun’s liking, especially since they were on the higher price range and would likely need some work done on some of the rice paper doors. One of the houses had been a bit more modern and the kids hadn’t liked it at all – houses in Yugakure were predominantly built in the traditional style. 

In the end they picked a slightly smaller house a few blocks from the academy. It came with a larger yard and a small pond – good for the kids, but still close enough not to be too much of a trek for any of them. Jun informed them that he’d likely be roped into teaching part time at the academy once he’d passed his probationary period so it was important to be close by – his mobility wasn’t great after all. He didn’t seem troubled with his new job; Yugakure’s preference for having its shinobi teach classes meant that he wasn’t entirely without experience in doing so. 

By the time they’d picked a house and paid for it, most of the day had passed them by and the two younger kids especially were at their limit of how much they could endure. Hungry and tired, the foursome didn’t even wait for the ink to dry on the deed to the house before they were out the door to grab some food and crash for the night. 

The house was unfurnished, so they all ended up sleeping in the lounge with only a few hastily purchased blankets and the like. It would do for just the one night, and Hiseo doubted he was the only one who was loathe to sleep alone – especially when the house was pretty barren. 

An early night of course meant for an early morning – for Jun and Hiseo at least, though Tetsu was up only a little later than them. Aki slept until the smell of breakfast started to permeate and the sun was rising properly, shining through the eastern windows. 

Breakfast that morning consisted of some fresh pastries from a bakery nearby, sweet buns and meat buns along with some melon-pan. Once devoured, it was back to their carts and wagons to move in their belongings. At some point during the night, two of the Yugakure ninja had apparently completed their own interrogations and kipped the night in one of the upstairs bedrooms according to Jun, since it was far too late for them to go apartment hunting themselves that late and Yun had offered Sanctuary for anyone who needed it. Hiseo hadn’t noticed them arrive at all but that wasn’t a surprise – from what he understood the other Yugakure ninja were all quite a bit older than them and so slipping past sleeping academy students wouldn’t exactly be a challenge. 

Jun had given them the apartment listings that Hiseo had given him, and passed on their thanks for having acquired them and organised them similarly to how he’d done the ones for Jun – picking places near the academy so that wherever the kids lived, the others could easily find the more local listings, in case they wanted to stay near their kinsmen. They’d have to find out where the other Yu natives had moved to, since the civilians had gotten through the gates so much sooner than them. 

For now though the attention of their mishmash household was on moving everything in. It didn’t take long to bring their carts around to the house but from there they encountered some difficulty. Because of Jun’s injury he wouldn’t be much help with the heavy lifting, and that just left the two smaller kids and Hiseo, who was still really a kid himself and not exactly capable of lifting Jun’s custom bed by himself. They were forced to leave it for now, focusing instead on some of the more manageable items. 

All of the kids had brought along simple futons which were much easier to take upstairs themselves. Tetsu had brought a fancy dresser that used to belong to his mother given the look of it, and it seemed that for simplicities sake since they’d had the cart space, Aki had literally brought along her entire wardrobe and everything in it. There was also a chest of toys and other miscellaneous items which Hiseo was able to heft upstairs to Tetsu’s chosen bedroom. The wardrobe was too large for him to take himself so that was set aside with the bed to come back to later. 

Hiseo had brought along with him a fair few of his own belongings – his family hadn’t been wealthy per se but there were plenty of sturdy, good quality objects he’d brought along. Initially he’d expected to living solo in an apartment so it turned out that between Jun and himself there were quite a few items they had doubles of. His mother‘s expensive cooking pots were selected in favour of Jun’s more modest ones, but it was decided that the small table and chairs that Hiseo’s family used would be too small and so was taken up to Hiseo’s room for personal use instead. 

It took some doing – and mostly Hiseo doing it – for them to get as much moved in as they could without help. He’d had to do most of the heavy lifting and ended up being given the largest bedroom upstairs for his use, since he was the one who’d brought along much of his old house and would likely need the extra space for his ninja career also. Jun had chosen to use a room downstairs as his bedroom, what had once been a study or library. It’d be easier on his back to keep to the downstairs, and Hiseo was quietly relieved because if they did have to move the older man’s bed themselves, taking it upstairs just wasn’t possible without help. 

Being the person most physically able, even if he was only twelve, meant that Hiseo spent most of the day lifting and carrying. Jun left briefly with the two younger kids to go and buy some take out lunch, and again a little later to buy groceries since the kitchen was coming along by that point. Hiseo hadn’t thought to bring the fridge from his old house along but thankfully Jun had. Actually Jun had brought his entire house with him – the furniture and essentials at least. To be fair as a single older man he had far less than Hiseo’s family of three, but even so it meant that the house would be basically habitable without buying too much. There would be plenty they’d need to buy to stock the house without needing all new furniture too. 

Naturally the two children had only brought along personal belongings rather than items for the rest of the house but that just meant that they mostly kept to their rooms sorting them out. Hiseo left his room for later since he had the rest of the house to move things into, just placing his belongings inside and leaving it all for later. It gave him some much needed space too – he'd brought objects and pictures of his parents to set up in a little shrine, something he wasn’t quite ready to do yet. 

It seemed as though the whole day past by when he wasn’t looking, that first day. Hiseo worked nearly non-stop until sunset and they still weren’t finished. 

“Oi oi!” The friendly greeting called down the street as one of the ex-Yugakure ninja approached them. “Thought I’d give you kids a hand once I’d got myself settled. Sorry for the delay. I’m Omoi.” 

The only person outside at the time, Hiseo turned away from the carts and gave a small bow. The Yugakure residents had all exchanged words on the trek over to Konoha, but some less than others. The ninja had spent most of the time on patrol, since the caravan would be easy pickings otherwise. Hiseo personally felt that the ninja also hadn’t wanted to get too friendly with the others in case they were refused entry to Konoha – it would only cause more pain to get attached to eachother and have to split up further. 

Now that they were in though, it seemed that at least Omoi was happy to start reaching out to them. 

“Nice to meet you, I’m HIseo. Jun and the children are inside. We can offer you some tea, if you’d like?” They did in fact have the kitchen mostly ready now, something they’d celebrated earlier with a cup of tea each. 

“Perhaps later.” Omoi grinned, looking at the array of half-empty carts still half blocking the street. “Looks like you need a hand here – just let me know where things need to go.” 

Considering Hiseo had been eyeing up the last big objects with reluctant trepidation, thinking he’d just have to do his best, it was good timing for the help. 

From there it took mere moments for Omoi to heft the custom bed into the downstairs bedroom, take up Tetsu‘s wardrobe, and heave inside the ice chest. The last few bits went in much easier and at last the carts were all empty, ready to be stored or sold as necessary. 

“You have our thanks.” Jun granted formally, though Omoi just waved it off with a grin. Despite the loss of their homes, the unflappable Yugakure attitude persisted. 

“Do you know how the other immigrants are getting on?” Hiseo asked as the group all congregated in the kitchen to start working on dinner, something which Omoi had been seamlessly included in despite his unexpected appearance. 

“Most of us ninja have gotten settled in easily enough from what I know. We’ll be assigned missions in the next few days once Konoha has a better idea of where best to put us.” He shrugged. “Most of the civilians have all found places fairly clustered together. I think a few of the families all pooled together to buy a small estate that used to belong to a ninja family – a way for them all to live together without being in eachother’s pocket.” Omoi grinned, ruffling the short dark hair that stuck up in different directions on his head. The ninja looked a little odd with the Konoha vest on over Yugakure ninja garb. He’d covered it a bit by wrapping more bandages around his arms and legs – something Yu ninja did far less than other nations, but it was still obviously different. 

There was going to be a lot to adapt to, but there was no other choice. At least there were small things from home to make it easier. Point of fact – as they began to serve dinner, Hiseo was sitting on one of the chairs he’d brought with him from home. The rest, and the table, belonged to Jun, and Hiseo had retrieved one of his parent’s chairs from his bedroom for Omoi to sit on. The chairs might not be much, but they’d been hand-crafted by his father as a courtship present for his mother, with Hiseo’s own chair being a gift when they‘d found out his mother was pregnant. Even if the room they ate in changed, the table they ate upon was different, at least he had some small part of his old home there with his chair. 

They might have left Yu behind, but not all of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Sorry for the delay again guys, I had this one nearly finished but ended up taking a break before I closed it all off. Fortunately this chapter should be better than the last - I'm tempted to go back and rework the last chapter because I'm not really happy with it, but chronic headaches rather do get in the way of things so I'm not sure if its worth the effort until I can get my health issues resolved. Just gotta keep doing my best! 
> 
> TBH I got stuck on the last chapter for ages and just wanted to post it and move on, but I'm much happier with this chapter, so I can definitely do better on the last one!
> 
> Either way, the story continues! We've finally made it to Konoha!


	6. Chapter 6

Steam 

 

Chapter 6 

 

The next day things were much less rushed for Hiseo, with the house was mostly in order. 

Now that he wasn’t being ushered to T&I or looking for a house to move into as soon as possible Hiseo finally hadthe opportunity to look around somewhat and take in Konoha. From their yard, four faces of the Hokage could be seen carved into the mountain overlooking the village. One of them was currently painted a garish green with red cheeks. Hiseo snickered slightly at what was most likely Naruto’s influence on the décor. 

That was unfortunate though – Hiseo had rather been hoping to arrive during the Yondaime’s reign rather than after it – things were exceptionally dangerous in Naruto’s time and he’d have more opportunity to try and change things before they went wrong then. He’d held out hope to go so far back as to stop Hatake Sakumo’s suicide but it had been a long shot. 

Hiseo had thought that when he got to Konoha he’d finally be able to pin down where he was in the timeline. Unfortunately that turned out to be much more difficult than he’d expected, because nobody was about to tell him the sort of information that would get him his bearings. 

It was only now when he was considering how useful his potential information was that he realised how little he actually knew. He knew secrets and he knew certain events, but not any of the contextual details around them like when or where. His memory hadn’t magically become photographic while he wasn’t paying attention so what little he did remember from his past life was lacking in much in the way of detail. 

He remembered that the Uchiha massacre happened, but not when, only that Sasuke was still in single digits and Itachi was still practically a kid himself. He remembered Shisui had his eye stolen by Danzo and proceeded commit suicide in the Naka river, but the river was long and he didn’t know where, nevermind when exactly. He couldn’t even narrow it down to ‘summer’ or ‘winter’ - certainly not good enough to be useful. His information was useless without context. 

It was the same for most of what he knew. He could give warnings if he wanted, but how useful would they actually be without the circumstantial information around it? 

It didn’t help that most of what he knew were dangerous secrets, particularly dangerous Konoha secrets. Hiseo didn’t want to fall into Danzo’s hands, or even blip on that monster’s radar, so he couldn’t tell anyone, not unless he trusted them completely. Right now Hiseo was alone, and as much as he wanted to share the information he had and hopefully save lives, he had no one to tell who he could trust not to use or silence him, so he was stuck. 

The only resolution of course was to find someone he could trust, which was no easy feat. Hiseo was fine at making a good impression but so far hadn’t had any luck actually acquiring friends – he'd coasted through most of his life till now without them. He’d just have to do his best and see how he fit in. Hopefully he’d be able to make friends with his genin team and jounin sensei once he was assigned one, but he’d have to wait and see. 

Of course the whole thing would be rather moot if, upon finding someone he could trust, they were simply overheard by one of Danzo’s root, but he could do nothing about that for now either. 

Hiseo was thus slightly pensive as he left the house that morning, intent on familiarizing himself with the neighborhood. Jun, Aki and Tetsu had found a local grocery store and the marketplace where they’d found some food stalls but that was about the extent of their own knowledge. It was still early so Hiseo had come out alone for now. 

Truthfully he had wanted some breathing room from everyone that morning. The last month or so of his life had been one of intense upheaval, of going from losing his parents, looking after a bunch of kids, having all those kids leave, then joining a large convoy of people on the road. It was giving him whiplash going from being alone to being surrounded by people. It didn’t upset him particularly, but as an only child it was certainly odd suddenly becoming a caretaker to other kids and he could do with some space. 

It didn’t take long for those discomforts to ease away though, as Hiseo wandered the streets. People passed him by with barely more than a curious glance. He avoided a group of girls who were having an argument and pretended not to notice when they spotted him and started following him, giggling with eachother instead. 

Konoha was very different than Yu, he could see that plain as day. People were freer with their emotions for a start, and everything looked slightly less polished. Not that it was a bad thing necessarily – Yu had been all but polished to a shine in most places, but Konoha felt more genuine in that regard. It felt like a ninja village too – while Yugakure had felt like a tourist hot springs town first, ninja village second. Wearing kimono, even just a kimono top like Hiseo was far less common here as well – there was more diversity of attire and less focus on concealment. 

Konoha didn’t appear to have hot springs like Yu had. Instead it had a public bathhouses, entirely man-made and maintained. It sufficed, but the difference left a sharp stabbing pain in his breast. The lack of natural hot springs was something that hadn’t seemed significant, but you really could tell the difference. He missed his home, no matter how much he might settle in to living in Konoha. 

Hiseo wondered if he’d made the right choice in coming here. There was no guarantee his presence would improve things at all, and he knew it would be just as dangerous as staying in Yu would have been, at the risk of being killed for being too old to pass by unnoticed by the new administration. It was too late to take back now but he couldn’t help but wonder all the same, just for a moment, what he might’ve been able to do if he’d stayed, versus what he’d be able to do in Konoha. 

With the eyes of Danzo and many others on him in Konoha, he may have been able to slip under the radar staying in Yu, only making himself known when he was strong enough to make a difference, but it may have been too late for any difference to be made. Instead he was here, taking the riskier route but hopefully with far greater payoff. 

For now he’d just have to focus on adapting to Konoha. Aside from the village itself, Hiseo had noticed that the weather was different here too – Yu wasn’t humid, because despite of all the steam from the hot springs it was built at a higher elevation. Konoha was mostly flat lands and forest, while Yu had been built with cliffs around, even taller than Hokage mountain. The hot springs also heated the earth beneath their feet so snow almost never settled on the ground, though it was rare for the air to get so cold as to snow anyway despite the height. They were small differences but noticeable. 

At least Yu was surrounded by dense woodland too – since it shared a border with Konoha it had that in common at least. 

Hiseo was distracted from his wanderings and thoughts (and the giggling girls that were still following him) when a masked ninja dropped down in front of him completely silently, one hand extending a scroll towards him. Yugakure didn’t have ANBU the way Konoha did but he knew from before he was reborn in this world at least a bit about them. That wasn’t to say one suddenly appearing in front of him wasn’t startling, but Hiseo thankfully reacted in the typical Yu manner to something shocking – that is to say, he didn’t react at all. 

Face unchanging, he simply accepted the scroll, and the ninja vanished before he could offer thanks, should have been so inclined. 

Unrolling it there in the street (it was hardly going to be sensitive since he was an academy student and it had been given to him also in the middle of the street, after all) the small parchment instructed him to join the academy the following Monday morning, three days hence. As he’d expected he was being placed in the graduating class despite already being at graduating age for Konoha students. He would still have to actually graduate, the parchment informed him, despite the academy at Yu’s focus in different areas to Konoha. That meant he’d probably have to work on the transformation and clone techniques, both of which he still wasn’t great at when having to take on the form of an actual person, along with the other basic jutsu Konoha students were taught that weren’t in Yu’s curriculum at all.. 

Unsurprising, but still a little annoying considering he was more advanced than most of the graduates otherwise - he could water walk after all, even if his clones and human transformation techniques still looked like blank dolls with gaps. He’d practiced a few jutsu while he was on the road too – mostly the one that let him ignite the fires when they’d camp for the evening, and practicing using a localized henge to hide the scars on his legs. It wasn’t much, but he was meant to be healing, not using chakra, so he hadn’t wanted to over do it. 

Either way he’d just have to find out what gaps he had in Konoha’s education system, and while he could jump start on it right now it would be a bit odd if he seemed to know exactly what techniques were taught here. No, he’d wait to attend his classes and ‘find out’ what he’d have to focus on then. 

That gave him a few days to explore Konoha and get himself settled in, along with the others. Hiseo doubted he’d be alone attending the academy come Monday, though Aki and Tetsu would be in the beginner classes he was sure. Both youngsters had some training, nothing with jutsu or weapons of course, they were too young for that, but it was better than nothing. From what Hiseo could tell lugging Tetsu’s belongings to his bedroom, the boy had brought with him a good chunk of his mother’s ninja supplies, and probably her stuff from the academy too. At least he wouldn’t be lacking in equipment and learning materials. 

Hiseo had brought much of his father’s spare gear as well. Most of it was too big for him and he doubted he’d ever be good enough to use his father’s sword even if he did grow tall enough to fit it, but he kept it all the same. He’d also been given his father’s Yugakure hitae-ate, not that he’d be able to wear it himself. He hadn’t been able to take much, but those at least could join his parent’s shrine, and perhaps one day he’d be able to wear some of the armor or make use of his ninja gear. 

Aki was going to need all new gear though, not that she would need too much at this stage of her education but even so. Hiseo expected that between Jun and himself they’d be able to train the two in some of the more Yugakure centric skills, like weapons concealment and water walking, regardless of what was being taught in class. Hopefully Tetsu’s mother had some of those wooden weapons stored in the case they’d brought along – getting used to weapons with the paint to practice with rather than actual blades was probably far preferable to whatever Konoha did. 

He’d have to find out where to buy some decent shinobi gear in town, though it wasn’t urgent for now. It was a little frustrating though – back in Yu, his mother had known where to get the best of any product, but here in Konoha he would have to find out from scratch. He’d have to replace what he had eventually, and poor quality equipment could kill. 

Since Hiseo had time to spare, he wandered through the marketplace. It was so odd seeing the identifying marks of different Konoha clans – Akimichi, Nara, Inuzuka just to name a few. They looked distinctive, but it was weird seeing them in real life rather than as anime style characters. Watching the anime really didn’t do justice to the Nara’s lazy slouch down the street, or how rough looking the Inuzuka really were. 

Even more jarring was discovering Ichiraku ramen. The sight of it froze his brain for a moment and his legs carried on without him – he'd walked right passed the food stall unresponsively before he’d regathered his wits. 

Part of him was curious about trying the place out – Naruto had certainly hyped the place up enough, but now wasn’t the time to throw himself into that frying pan. The last thing he needed was the suspicion of being around the jinchuriki. 

With that in mind he skedaddled off to find somewhere else to explore, stopping into a few weapon and ninja clothing stores along the way. 

Eventually he found his way back to the house, the sounds of two young children wreaking havoc and giving Jun the run around greeting him as soon as he stepped inside. 

“Need me to take them for a bit?” Hiseo offered without really thinking about it, not that he had anything better to do. Like him, Jun had probably not had to look after little kids before recently so it didn’t exactly come naturally yet, to always be having that on the mind. It hadn’t occurred to Hiseo when he went out this morning that he’d be leaving Jun to look after the two younger kids. It wasn’t really a big deal, but especially while they were all still getting settled into things, it was a bit tougher right now. 

“Thanks.” Jun sounded exhausted but grateful, waving the two younger children over to Hiseo and making a break for his bedroom as if Hiseo might change his mind any moment. 

“What’s got you hassling poor Jun then?” Hiseo asked mildly, eyeing the pair. 

“We want to train!” Tetsu told him seriously, little face scrunched up and serious. Both kids were pretty boisterous when they wanted to be but Tetsu especially was driven in his goal to become a ninja. The pair of them could also be pretty sullen, understandably but still. Sullen and energetic? Not exactly a fun time for all. 

“Well I’m pretty sure I saw a park when I was out this morning, so let’s burn off some energy there then.” Hiseo could get started with some light exercise as long as he didn’t push too hard – keeping up with a couple of kids half his age should be fine. “Then you can run me through what each of you have learned already, and what you wanted to focus on next.” 

Both children gave muted cheers and raced outside ahead of him, barely pulling on their sandals in their rush. 

“Good thing I didn’t bother taking off my boots.” Hiseo hummed to himself as he followed them back out, leaving Jun some peace and quiet. 

The park wasn’t too far away, and seemed fairly busy, mostly with civilian kids. It was likely that there was a training ground for academy students to use so the park was just for playing in, though there were a few running around the perimeter working on their stamina. Soon Aki, Tetsu and Hiseo were joining the runners in a jog around the edge. 

This was the first time Hiseo was doing more than walk since he got his legs near chopped off. There had definitely been some muscle atrophy, but his stamina seemed fine. He kept pace with the pair without trouble beyond some twinges in his legs, and slowed with Aki when she started to run out of steam. From there he led them through their cool down stretches and once they’d caught their breath, they played some ‘how many weapons are they wearing’ and other such observational games. 

A few other kids and their parents had watched the trio in their activities, though none had so far approached them. That changed once they’d been sat down for a while, as Aki and Tetsu were invited to join some kind of tag-like game with a group already playing. Hiseo didn’t recognise any of the children playing, nothing beyond clan affiliation for the more visible members at least, and though they seemed hesitant at first, both Aki and Tetsu agreed to play once Hiseo nodded his acceptance. The pair ran off with their new friends, leaving Hiseo to make himself comfortable beneath a tree and watch over them from afar. 

“You’re young enough to join them if you want, you know?” A woman spoke up a few minutes later, having circled around the playing children to approach him. Her voice was a touch gruff, as if she’d smoked a lot, though he didn’t detect the scent around her at all. “Even ninja kids are still allowed to play.” 

“It’s fine.” He assured. Truthfully he’d had his fill already – Hiseo had never been one for group games like that unless they were training exercises, and none of those children were old enough or skilled enough to be a challenge for him, even with his handicap. He could change the game into something of a him versus them save the princess type thing, but frankly he thought it better to let the pair play on their own with kids their own age than get them used to him always being involved. He was going to be a genin soon – they needed to make friends their own age for when he couldn’t be there all the time. 

“So what’s the story with you anyway?” The woman persisted, going so far as to sit herself down nearby him. Hiseo wasn’t fussed about propriety but it was still odd for a stranger to invite herself to sit with him like this. “You look nothing like either of those kids-” he was the only one with dark blue hair or eyes. Tetsu’s eyes were a much lighter shade of blue and Aki looked nothing like either of them, with ash blond hair and brown eyes. “-and while you look old enough to be a genin, you’re no recent graduate that I know of.” 

“We’re immigrants from Yu.” Hiseo offered simply, knowing enough gossip had gone around by now that she’d know what he was referring to. Honestly it was more likely that she already knew everything there was to know about them and was here to see for herself or scrounge up more info. He was from Yugakure – information was more of a currency than actual currency there, he knew what she was after. 

“Aki, Tetsu and I are all going to be joining the academy next week.” They’d be joining Konoha’s forces, something he was sure that not everyone would be happy about. There was a reason Danzo was so powerful after all, and it wasn’t just because he was cunning and ruthless – it was because plenty of people agreed with him. A nationalist like him would never accept an outsider like Hiseo, Aki and Tetsu – Hiseo especially since he was too old to be reconditioned properly with Konoha’s propaganda. 

“I see. You want to be ninja so much you’re prepared to join another village to do so?” Her tone was doubtful but her eyes sharp – not that she’d read much off of Hiseo. 

“I’m prepared to join Konoha to do so.” He rectified. Truthfully if he couldn’t join Konoha he wouldn’t have risked any other village, instead going mercenary and doing his best to interfere and improve his skills to survive what was to come. 

The woman seemed to accept his answer, turning away from him to survey the kids still playing in the park. “Name’s Satomi Asano. Was my kid who asked yours to come play.” She finally introduced herself. 

“I’m Hiseo. Good to meet you.” He offered in the same polite yet bland tone. 

“Jeez kid, nuthin shakes you does it? If your voice weren’t so warm I’d think you were stuffy like those Hyuuga twits.” She grinned at him, leaning back onto her hands. “Some random kunoichi comes up to you and starts interrogatin ya, you don’t even give a shit.” And he’d answered her questions without divulging more than he’d wanted to either, which was surprising for a kid his age to do so smoothly, though perhaps not given his place of birth. “Kinda wonder how you’d hold up to torture to be honest, not that I’m about to try that out on ya.” 

“Appreciated.” His lack of concern seemed only to amuse her more and she gave a short, harsh laugh. 

“Me and my kids are here most days around this time – academy let out a while ago for the younger kids so I take ‘em here to unwind after. Could keep an eye on yours too, if I see ‘em around.” 

The offer was generous, especially since Hiseo was likely going to be busy with his own studies and finished class later. The pair were old enough to be out on their own but it was still a risk he was loathe to take – they were vulnerable because nobody would care if they disappeared, so having another set of eyes on them would help. Jun was only able to do so much, given his back injury – the last few days had pushed him past his limits as it was. 

“Thank you.” Hiseo turned to face her properly this time, giving her a half-bow from his seated position. “I’d be grateful.” 

It had been difficult enough for him to suddenly look after a bunch of kids back in his old house, but at least then he’d had other kids to help him – Himawari especially. They’d also all been much more clingy after everything that had happened, while Aki and Tetsu were moving past that stage a bit. Hiseo had never thought he’d be trying to juggle his own ninja career along with caring for two kids and a disabled older ninja, none of whom were all that familiar with eachother. 

Foisting them off on the first person he found wasn’t what he’d intended, and frankly Satomi’s offer was for a limited time slot and likely conditional on how the kids all got on, but it still helped. No doubt the kunoichi was also getting plenty out of the arrangement – access to information about the secrets of Yugakure, little though it might be from kids as young as they. Schooling started younger though, and there was plenty they may have learned from their parents or just picked up from being natives. 

“By the way, if you wanted those scars looked at, since you’re enrolled at the academy now you could probably get a medic to give them another look.” Satomi told him after a few minutes of silence. “Might not be much they can do – it looks pretty old already – but they could speed the healing if you needed it, minimize the scarring a little bit. Looks like the medics in Yu did a bit of a patch job. Understandable given the circumstances, but eh.” She shrugged. Honestly it wasn’t a big deal – it was mostly healed by now anyway but getting it looked at again might ease some of the ache and get him back in shape a little faster. 

“The scars don’t bother me.” Hiseo assured mildly. Even if they weren’t there he’d never forget the sight of them, gaping wide open and covered in blood, bone visible. He’d been terrified his legs would fall off as he dragged himself away. 

“Well they certainly tell a story.” She told him, eyeing the exposed scars herself. Hiseo had usually favored shorts and that hadn’t changed, though he’d definitely look into clothing with some kind of protection once he became an active genin. Either that or he’d have to learn how to better dodge or deflect blows with chakra. He’d learned the hard way what having unprotected legs could end up like after all. 

It seemed that despite their age difference, Satomi appeared to respect him for surviving whatever gave him those scars. It was likely a shinobi thing – the fact that he’d endured something awful and was continuing to pursue a ninja career instead of drop out. Usually a kid would have to be genin rank at least to be put through a trial like that, and only once they’d passed it were they considered a ‘real’ ninja. Like an untested blade going through a proving. 

“Say, how’s about I treat you three to some dinner after this? Least I can do for the inquisition?” Satomi grinned at him. “’sides, it’ll let me show you around a little bit. Never let it be said that us Konoha natives are anything but hospitable.” And getting the Yu immigrants into her debt could help later, Hiseo was sure. 

Still, he didn’t mind it – this was the world they lived in: nothing came for free, it just might be paid in a different manner than predicted. 

“Sure, as long as its no bother.” He didn’t want to wrack up a debt bigger than he wanted to pay back after all, but a simple meal and some local info shouldn’t cost him too much. 

“How do you guys like barbeque? There’s a great Akimichi restaurant nearby that’s not too pricy – my treat.” 

“Barbeque sounds fine, though I insist on contributing towards the bill.” The Yu natives weren’t here to rely on others generosity to support them and Hiseo wasn’t about to change that by being a fool. 

“Alright then!” Satomi heaved herself to her feet and let out a holler for her kid, a young boy with a mop of messy brown hair who’d been tussling with Aki just moments before. Aki and Tetsu joined him, seeing their playmate’s mother stood next to Hiseo. 

“This is Masaru.” Satomi introduced to boy to Hiseo. “Masaru, this is Hiseo – those two’s guardian. We’re going to get dinner together.” 

Masaru didn’t seem bothered by the abrupt inclusion of guests to dinner, merely cheering for barbeque – a cheer that was soon echoed by Hiseo’s pair. 

“Alright alright, off we go then. Behave yourselves you lot, alright?” It wasn’t really a question at all and Satomi was already turning away and leading them off to the restaurant before any response could be given. The three kids chattered excitedly along the way about the game they’d been playing – Aki was adamant that Masaru had cheated with one move which smeared mud in her face earlier. Thankfully the worst of that had been washed off at the nearby water fountain otherwise they’d likely all be going home for a wash before they went out to eat. As it was all three kids were sent straight to the bathroom once they arrived to wash their hands and faces properly. 

Unlike what he’d expected for an Akimichi restaurant, it was actually not too loud inside. Perhaps it was simply the time of day – it was a bit early for dinner for anyone who wasn’t looking after younger kids, so it would probably get busier – and louder – in another hour or two. 

One thing was definitely like he’d expected though – the portion sizes here were huge, even the kids portions that Hiseo, Aki and Tetsu ordered. Satomi’s plate was so loaded you could barely see the plate under all the meat. 

“This place is great for growing kids and working ninja.” Satomi shared with him as she reached for a piece of meat by the bone it was still hanging on to. “On the off chance you don’t finish, they’ll give ya a bag to take the rest of it home – you could say this is a working class establishment.” 

“Thank you for inviting us.” He waited until he’d finished his mouthful to say, echoed a moment later by Aki and Tetsu. 

“Psh, its fine. S’long as your kids get along with mine, it’s no bother to me.” Satomi leaned back in her seat, nursing her drink - something alcoholic that Hiseo didn’t recognise, not that he was very knowledgeable in alcohol. 

The meal concluded shortly after that and the group split ways to return to their respective homes. 

Jun greeted them warmly, apparently having recovered while they were out. 

“Its a damn shame there’s no proper hot springs here though.” He’d grumbled. “Used to do wonders for my back. Tried using the bath tub, but it just ain’t the same.” 

“There’s an onsen a few blocks down.” Hiseo told him, though it wouldn’t do too much good if Jun was immobilised. “You could give it a try when you’re feeling a bit better and see if it compares.” He didn’t seem too convinced of it himself, but it was still worth a shot. 

“Don’t think anything’ll compare to the Yugakure hot springs.” Jun muttered sadly, turning away. Hiseo was already heading upstairs to his room and while he pretended not to hear, he quietly agreed. 

On that low note, the day ended.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: So this actually went a bit filler-y, I had a whole bit planned for Hiseo’s first day at the academy but ended up getting wildly side tracked, so sorry about that! Don’t worry though, Hiseo will start the academy in the next chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 

 

Oh shit. 

It was with those words in mind that Hiseo walked into his first class at the academy. 

He’d spent the last few days preparing for this; finding out where to buy supplies from in the village and working on reconditioning his body after spending so long convalescing. Nothing could prepare him for actually stepping into the academy however, and being invited into his assigned classroom. 

By Iruka-sensei. 

While the painted face of the Hokage monument had pinned this as being at some point of the Naruto timeline, Hiseo had thought it far earlier than this. Judging from the class he was only a year or so older than Naruto’s and his class, which he was now joining. He’d had no idea that Hidan’s defection/massacre had happened so close to the start of the main story – he’d thought he had several years to prepare and position himself in the best way to help with what was coming. 

Apparently that was not the case. Hiseo mentally struggled to come to terms with the realisation while Iruka led him down the hall. Hiseo followed his sensei into the classroom proper, which was already filled with boisterous students. 

“Oi sensei, who’s that?!” 

A young boy with red triangles on his face shouted the moment Hiseo entered the classroom after Iruka. All heads turned to the front to examine the source of the question and Hiseo was fortunate that he didn’t give a shit at being stared at by a crowd, so he just continued walking after his teacher with an unperturbed expression on his face. He pushed aside the roiling thoughts in his head about when and where he was and refocused on the present, which consisted of Iruka’s (surprisingly young) irritated expression as the teacher stepped aside to let him introduce himself. 

“My name is Hiseo, I’m transferring to this graduating class. Please take care of me.” He gave a shallow bow and walked to the nearest empty seat – one near the middle without further fuss. 

His somewhat unenthusiastic introduction seemed only to excite the children further, and they tried to interrogate more information out of both him and his teacher. Despite only being a year odd younger than him, the bulk of the class reacted far more childishly than the year difference would have led him to expect. They were clearly ninja in training, but also still just naïve kids, for the most part. 

Some of the class seemed more welcoming than others, but Hiseo mostly didn’t engage with their furor– a choice he was glad he made a moment later when Iruka bellowed for order and assigned several of the more outlandish characters detention. Both Naruto and Ino were amongst their number, both having leapt to their feet and were either out of their chair entirely or leaning so far over that they may as well have been. 

“That is quite enough of that!” Iruka glared at them. “You are soon to be ninja of Konoha – so act like it!” 

That heralded the beginning of the lesson proper, as Iruka moved straight on to the topics set to be studied that day, not giving anyone else the chance to act out. 

(Not that it really stopped them – Hiseo fended off subtle attempts at conversation throughout the lesson and could hear some chatter behind him too – Iruka had hardly deterred them in full.) 

=========================== 

Hiseo observed the class as a whole as he sat only paying half attention to the lesson. It was strange; in Konoha, there wasn’t the same focus on composure that he was used to back home. 

Here, the students acted out pretty much however they wanted. The teachers tried to reign them in of course, but never seriously (a few harsh words or detention studying boring history lessons was not a serious attempt at behavioural correction despite Iruka and Mizuki’s intentions) and so the students remained mostly unruly. 

In Yugakure one of the first things they’d been taught was to keep their composure. It was a lesson he’d not really needed to learn as he’d already adopted it from his parents, but he could see how his fellow students had changed under the examples they were given. Excitable children were a touch quieter, more diligent in their studies. It wasn’t that they didn’t show emotion or were suddenly perfectly behaved, more that they were shown that there were less visible ways of expressing themselves, more useful outlets, and a time and place for them to be expressed also. 

‘In Yu we are like the hot water of our hot springs: inviting, welcoming, but difficult to see beyond the surface of the steam. We may hide endless depths and burning temperatures, dangerous rocks concealed from our enemies.” His father used to say to him, the same message told in a myriad of different metaphors. (That one was most true though, Hiseo felt. Especially because some of the hot springs actually were too hot to use and stories of visitors boiling alive were whispered of where visitors wouldn’t hear.) 

Yugakure shinobi were not soldiers first and foremost like Konoha, they were ninja, and ninja didn’t stand out unless they wanted to (they very rarely wanted to. The best ninja were the ones you never knew were there.) To be bold in any way was to be a beacon, to invite attack. Konoha didn’t seem to have received that memo, by all accounts, or perhaps as one of the ‘big five’ it simply didn’t focus on being the hidden blade as the smaller villages had to, but instead on simply being the bigger sword as it were. 

It meant that transitioning into the Konoha academy was more jarring than he’d expected. There were more students in Hiseo’s new class than there were in Yugakure academy’s top 3 years combined. The class sizes were so much bigger and the teacher had less control of his more unruly students, so it was like a melting pot of energy with very little knowledge getting thrown in rather than the quiet and personalised learning he was used to. 

Worse, most of the information he was being taught was either village propaganda or things he already knew – things he’d learned years ago like travelling tips and basic chakra control. 

The students all seemed ready to get on and be genin despite seeming a bit underprepared for it in comparison to Yu’s standards and learning things in a backwards order. It was almost like the academy wasn’t meant to teach students more than a few years, but couldn’t let them graduate till they were a bit older and more mature, so just dragged it out without filling the time with useful stuff. Maybe it was just that being a much bigger village, there was less investment in individual students over just shoving out crop after crop of genin. 

Or maybe it was just an inherent difference in Hiseo’s own classes, as something of a prodigy in terms of maturity at least he’d spent a lot of time being taught useful things, while he knew many other children had taken less classes and spent more time just being children. Here in Konoha it was like they tried to do both – have more classes but let the kids be kids so they didn’t actually sit and study during half those classes. Iruka had just repeated the same information three times in different ways and several of the students still didn’t look like they got it (or just weren’t bothering to try, which could also be true.) 

It was odd and he couldn’t say he really liked it, but it wasn’t something he could do anything about and he would only be here for this final term anyway so the underwhelming classes were moot. Besides, his biggest problem wasn’t what they were studying, it was the children in his class. 

Meeting the protagonists (and sometimes-antagonist in Sasuke’s case also) was in a way a bit underwhelming. While he wasn’t sure how much he could rely on his knowledge of the anime, the characters themselves appeared unlike what he remembered. They weren’t quite as larger-than-life as they’d been portrayed, but were every bit as childish as they’d seemed in the show. Even knowing how much potential they held, should his knowledge be reliable, didn’t change the fact that right now, they were pretty pathetic. Kiba shouted stupid shit as commentary and laughed when someone tripped over on their way to their seat. Ino screeched about Sasuke and Sasuke avoided everyone, surly and rude at best. 

A few hours later it was finally lunch time. Hiseo considered socialising but as all the students from several different academy classes spilled out into the yard and seemed to bee-line straight for him, he reflexively cast the camouflage jutsu and skirted around them for some privacy before he could reconsider enduring the horde. 

He spent the break on his own where he remained under his camouflage jutsu, even though his bento was visible if one paid attention to the small grey box. Only the Hyuuga and Nara noticed him that Hiseo saw though neither approached him. 

Apparently networking was a big thing in the Konoha academy. Cliques were prevalent and popularity seemed to matter an awful lot. There were honest to god fangirls squealing at regular intervals, and Hiseo had watched with disbelief at their antics several times. (In Yu, while it wasn’t uncommon for students to find someone to hero-worship, they usually did so by following them around at their most obvious, not shrieking and attacking eachother for the right to sit next to their obsession, that was for sure.) 

In some ways actually being here in Konoha was a disappointment, but he knew it was because he’d only seen a very small bit of it so far, mostly the pre-genin part of it. He couldn’t deny that it was a bit hard to accept, that these people who would become so powerful and developed were at present rather pathetic, but that was his own problem. 

It was something he learned from watching the Naruto story – anyone could become powerful if they were motivated into doing so, and had the right teachers. At the moment, none of these kids had the right motivation, but they would eventually. 

Weak fangirls like Sakura, abandoned outcasts like Naruto and like Obito, all had become insanely powerful despite their less than prodigious beginnings. So many people had written them off and yet they had each become incredibly powerful. Just because they started out as pathetic didn’t mean that they’d always stay that way. All they had needed was a teacher and a reason to learn and work hard. 

Still, it was a bit hard to remember that when looking at Shikamaru slumped in the dust during track that afternoon, exhausted and giving up after barely five minutes of running laps regardless of Mizuki sensei or Iruka blowing their whistle at him to get him going again. 

He knew that these kids would be in the thick of it, knew that they would one day become incredibly strong, but that knowledge seemed difficult to believe the longer he watched them. Sasuke was incredibly abrasive, going so far as to sneer at him while they ran laps – Hiseo near the back of the pack in terms of speed because of his healing legs, even if his stamina was nothing to sniff at despite the injuries – and giving him a smug look when he finally finished. Sakura had actually tripped over her own feet at one point because she kept looking over at her crush and had honest to god simpered at him when he went by. Neither she nor Ino and a few other girls even broke a sweat – nary a hair out of place as they barely tried at all. 

Iruka just let it happen, though he gave half-hearted attempts to correct such behaviour it was clear he’d also accepted his own failure to encourage more effort from his students. 

More interestingly to Hiseo were Shino and Hinata. Though mostly out of shyness on Hinata’s part, both clan heirs were unobtrusive and focused – though with some distraction for Hinata’s part. When they ran, both kept their heads down and pushed their bodies to the limit. Hiseo had noticed both of them observing him during class as well as on the track, and had made it plain to Shino that the bug he’d sent over to investigate him had been noticed but not brushed away or crushed. In truth Hiseo had spent a good chunk of the class time examining the little kikaichu – it didn’t look like any kind of bug he’d seen before and was more interesting than the lesson at the time. Hiseo had tried to examine it all over but the little bug wouldn’t let him flip it onto its back – clinging stubbornly to his finger and buzzing its wings grumpily (he presumed) at him instead. 

Once they were all warmed up (or worn out in a few instances – some of the students really needed to work on their fitness) it was time for some sparring. Strangely it seemed like the spars were typically split by gender, and though there was some variation it was clear that there was a hierarchy – with Sasuke at the top and Naruto at the bottom, even though actually some of the girls were worse than him because despite that he lacked skill at all, he did try while they refused to actually hit eachother. 

Hiseo’s first spar was with someone he didn’t know – presumably someone who didn’t pass the genin exam. They didn’t look like a clan kid, but from what he could see of their form, they weren’t too bad for Konoha academy students. 

Hiseo wiped the floor with him. 

Of course he wasn’t a dick about it – Hiseo still favored non-lethal takedowns and even a no-weapon/no-chakra fight like this he was still better than most of the kids here, perhaps excepting the more taijutsu-focused clan kids like Kiba. Hiseo was fast and focused though and he moved like water – a few precise strikes and his opponent was down, and so was his next, and the one after that. It was only after three straight fights that he was dismissed from the ring so he could rest, and by then he could see several of the other kids glaring at him – he’d suddenly become the one to beat. 

To be fair Hiseo was a year or so older than them which made a big difference at this age, even if he wasn’t all that much bigger to show for it. 

“Wow, the newbie seems pretty good.” Hiseo heard someone say, possibly Chouji or someone nearby him. 

“Hmph, there’s no way he could defeat our beloved Sasuke-kun.” Any number of the girls could’ve been the source of that one and he wasn’t about to turn and look – Hiseo had less than zero interest in getting involved with fangirls or Uchiha Sasuke if he could help it. 

Naruto, despite having already lost his own fight, seemed eager to take him on as well. The blond was loud and bouncy as he approached Hiseo, emphasis on the loud. 

“You really don’t need to shout, you know?” Hiseo informed him calmly, interjecting before another ‘believe it!’ could be bellowed in his ear as the blonde boy walked up boasting of his prowess. “I’m sure we’ll spar at some point and we’ll find out one way or another.” Truthfully he very much doubted that Naruto had a shot against him – the boy was rash and unskilled, unable to make use of his own stamina against his opponents when he just ran right in and got beat down for his efforts. 

“If you want a shot at beating me though, you should think carefully about how you want to do it. Just running straight at your opponent didn’t work for you earlier – but I’ve seen your handiwork on Hokage mountain. I know you can do better than what you’ve shown in the ring.” Technically nobody had told him that Naruto had painted the Hokage mountain, and he’d not seen it happen himself, but he doubted anyone would call him out on that – people had been muttering about it in the streets after all so he could feasibly have overheard. Hiseo also wanted to give Naruto help if he could, but without humiliating him either. Hopefully he’d phrased things in a way that wouldn’t offend. 

The sunshine haired boy at first seemed upset at being interrupted – probably expecting Hiseo to insult him like most of the other people did. When Hiseo’s tone remained level instead of acidic though, a grin broke over his face and he stayed stood where he was, apparently mulling over his suggestion or just basking in the friendly human interaction. Either way, he quieted for a moment with the grin still on his face. 

It wasn’t much longer that Hiseo was called up to spar again – this time with Shino. The bug user was fast and precise – though didn’t use near as much movement as Hiseo did. His taijutsu was pretty good though, giving Hiseo a run for his money as he was tough to pin down or get in close to – presumably because most of his taijutsu was oriented to evade and defend, as his kikaichu would make him a long range fighter. 

Eventually Hiseo won simply because his stamina was better. By the end of the match he was pretty winded though, as he hadn’t wanted to go full offensive on the other boy – mostly because he didn’t want to risk doing more harm than he intended or having his attack fail. Shino’s body was adapted to hosting his kikaichu, and Hiseo hadn’t wanted to risk relying on pressure points that might not work, or might crush kikaichu pathways instead. 

Still, he won in the end and moved out of the ring while Shino received some commiserations from his classmates. He was aching a fair bit from so much leg-work, though hiding the strain on his scars was reflexive. 

“Alright, that’s enough sparring for today. Let’s run though areas of improvement while we move on to kunai and shuriken throwing for a bit.” Iruka instructed, breaking up the group around the ring and ushering them off towards the training posts. 

Rather than critique all the students in front of eachother, he instead got them started with their throwing and then pulled each student aside one on one. From there, some of the students continued to practice their throwing while others worked on whatever Iruka had instructed them on – running through katas and the like. 

Sasuke picked the lane furthest from anyone, while Hiseo picked one at random. Naruto seemed to take his lack of being driven off as tentative encouragement and had picked the lane next to him, and was unsubtly eyeing him every now and then. 

It was only now that he took the opportunity to look the other boy over properly. The titular character was someone he’d been looking forward to meeting in person since he’d arrived, curious as to whether Naruto truly was as the manga had shown him to be. 

Well, Naruto’s outfit was truly an eye-searing shade of orange. He wore a determined expression on his face as he threw shuriken at the post, many of them missing the target or hitting it incorrectly, though his throws never fell short. 

Honestly, how nobody had caved and just given the kid some attention was a wonder – it was clear that was all the loud brat wanted and not even the clan kids had bothered to invest in Naruto. They may not know what sort of power he would have in the future like he did but he would have thought someone would have been dropped a hint by their parents – Shikaramu maybe, or one of the lesser clans looking to ride on the coat tails of an Uzumaki, even if he didn’t know sealing yet they were well known for their huge chakra reserves. It wasn’t like Naruto had released the demon fox and killed anyone the entire time he’d been host to it, so the idea of being safe if they kept their distance was moot. Even fearing him as a jinchuuriki, to have him in their debt would be valuable indeed. 

Besides, Hiseo knew all too well the sometimes it didn’t matter how physically close you were to someone – he'd been streets away when Hidan had gone on his rampage and he’d not known the Yu traitor was even in the village. If Kurama broke out he doubted anywhere would really be safe, so what did it matter being ten feet from the boy or ten miles? 

Hiseo practiced throwing for a little while before Iruka came over to give him his critique. Throwing practice wasn’t interesting at all but he was decent enough at it to use the time to think about what it meant that he was here in this classroom with Naruto’s graduating class instead of further back in the timeline like he’d thought. He’d have to be careful for sure, but it put him right in the middle of several messes he’d hoped to avoid. 

Before he could do more than give some cursory thought to his situation Iruka was interrupting him and pulling him aside for sparring advice. 

“Hello Hiseo,” Iruka greeted with a polite and friendly approach. “I could tell from your fights that you’re skilled in combat but reluctant to use much force – you didn’t take a few opportunities to end the fight because you didn’t want to hurt your opponent, right?” 

“That’s right Sensei.” Hiseo answered with a shrug. “In Yu, I was encouraged to focus on non-lethal takedowns as it is very useful for those working the hot springs to be able to break up fights without causing harm to the guests. I have learned how to use more damaging attacks, though I dislike doing so on more than dummies without need.” 

“Alright, show me on the practice dummy what other moves you could use if you wanted.” Iruka instructed, leading him over to a wooden dummy for him to use. Hiseo proceeded to move into his taijutsu stance and attack far more aggressively than he usually would, enough for Iruka to nod his acceptance. 

“I can see that you’re lacking in much diversity of offensive movement of this nature, but since your regular skills are decent enough I’ll accept it, since you’ve made an effort to learn some. There will likely come a time you‘ll need to use those moves however, so I hope you don’t exclude them entirely.” 

“Of course Sensei, I understand.” Hiseo might have to be a child killer before too long, especially since Konoha held far less value in the lives of others than Yu did (if only because in Yu, anybody could be a customer so even killing missing nin could be a bad business decision) but he wasn’t about to make it his go-to. Besides, he knew that there were going to be some truly awful and powerful people in the future – people like Orochimaru, who Hiseo wasn’t about to try and keep alive. 

“Very well then. Aside from that, your spars were very good. I assume that you’re using a Yugakure style taijutsu right? Do you know if the other Yu academy students know it too? They won’t start on anything more than the Leaf katas given their age, but it’d help to know.” 

“Yes, they both know the basics at least. Yugakure focused on weaponless fighting from a young age. I’d say that Aki would know more given her age, but Tetsu’s mom was a teacher so he might actually know more than her. He also might have some of her tools as well, if you wanted to see how things were done in Yu.” Hiseo wasn’t sure if the information he’d given over in interrogation had already been divulged to the academy teachers, but even so there was nothing better than having the physical tools and worksheets in hand. 

“Thank you Hiseo.” Iruka seemed surprised at the offer of information and resources – understandable, since Hiseo was giving away village secrets of a kind, even if they were no longer either of those things. 

“If they can be useful to the children of this country, they’re worth giving away.” Hiseo answered the question Iruka was clearly struggling to ask without offending Hiseo. “Besides, we joined Konoha, so our loyalty is here now. I want to make Konoha the best it could be.” 

“Alright Hiseo, thank you for your contributions.” Iruka gave a shallow bow to Hiseo, which surprised him until he remembered how much Iruka cared for his students. Of course he’d appreciate Hiseo trying to help how he could. 

Nodding in acknowledgement, Hiseo returned to where he’d been practicing his throwing while Iruka moved on to the next person. 

It wasn’t much longer that Hiseo heard some sort of scuffle breaking out further down the line. Iruka was talking with another student off to the side and hadn’t seemed to notice yet so Hiseo moved closer to break things up. Schoolyard squabbles may be a normal thing, but having them during a practice with live weapons was just asking for trouble. 

Indeed it looked like one of the girls had been showing off for Sasuke only for the other girls around her to take offense to her boasting. While they’d been trying to one-up eachother, things were now heating up. 

“There’s no way you’re better than me – I'm going to be the one to marry Sasuke! He won’t even look at you!” 

“He won’t look at you either, you should just give up, fish-face! He’d never want you! You should just cut your hair and disappear!” 

By the time Hiseo was close enough to interfere the spat was escalating and catching attention from students nearby. One of the girls seemed to be using their practice kunai to chop off another girls hair – presumably because of the rumor that Sasuke liked long hair. 

It was a matter of seconds for Hiseo to disarm the pair of them and separate them, despite how they’d both been grabbing fistfuls of eachother’s hair at the time. 

“Is this truly the graduating class for Konoha’s ninja?” For the first time, Hiseo’s steady voice held not warmth, but instead was cool and distinctly unimpressed. “Squabbling over a boy – to the extent of raising weapons against eachother. These blades might not be the sharpest, but you could still cause harm waving them in eachother’s faces you know. Do Konoha shinobi truly value their comrades so little?” 

“Of course not!” Kiba shouted – there was now a crowd forming around them and Iruka was heading over with an expression like a kettle about to boil, his face was so red. 

“Doesn’t look like that to me.” He tossed down the kunai he’d liberated from both girls. “If you’re not here to be ninja then you’re wasting everyone’s time. Both the students, and Iruka-sensei's. If you’re just here to try and woo a boy who hasn’t looked over here even when you were tearing eachother’s hair out and shrieking like banshees, there's no point to you being here.” Indeed, Sasuke was one of the few kids still diligently throwing shuriken at his post, not having stopped at all. He clearly had no interest in any of them. 

“What’s going on here?” Iruka asked, the crowd parting to let him through. Both girls were starting to blubber, but Kiba helpfully opened his mouth. 

“Haruki and Sasana were attacking eachother sensei! Over Sasuke-kuuuun.” A fair chunk of the class seemed unimpressed with the fangirls and began to disperse now that Iruka was here to sort things out. 

“Alright, detention you two, and if you’re unwilling to practice throwing then you can go back to running laps instead. Now.” He said sharply, when neither girl looked inclined to move. They shot off unhappily under Iruka’s unimpressed stare. 

“Thank you for breaking that up Hiseo-kun.” 

“S’fine.” He assured, already turning back to his own practice. In the background he could hear Naruto shouting about how he was ‘so cool!’ and was all ‘zoom! Grab! Swoosh!’ much to his amusement. 

“I imagine this isn’t doing much to help your opinion of your future comrades.” Iruka continued, following after him. “I can only apologise. This class is one of the most unruly.” Even Iruka sensei seemed a bit frustrated at them all. Hiseo could only imagine being their teacher. 

“There are a lot of strong-willed students in the class.” Hiseo acknowledged. “Right now that strong will is just not working in your favor.” 

His teacher smiled, the scar over his nose crinkling somewhat. “That’s a very kind way of putting it.” It was the truth, but could easily be seen in less kind ways. “I imagine its quite different to how you’re used to learning. I only visited Yugakure a few times on escort missions but I remember seeing one of the classes being taught outside the academy. The class was much smaller.” 

Hiseo sighed, glancing down at the long line of students in his new class. “It is very different to Yu.” He admitted, for a moment mourning the loss of it all. “I learned a lot there, and would have liked to learn more. I enjoyed the style of teaching I received.” 

“The Hokage has given me some of the notes from your testimony when you first arrived – corroborated with your caretaker. All of the academy staff were called in to a meeting about it.” Iruka informed him. 

Hiseo wondered why he was being told these things but wasn’t about to dissuade the teacher from doing so – he was interested and it was clearly relevant to him. Hiseo could imagine the interest that Konoha had – it was rare to get such an in depth look at another village’s teaching system, and Yu was known for quality ninja, few though they were and rarely drawing much notoriety. 

“While it’s too late to change things for the graduating class, we’re hoping to implement some of the teaching techniques used in your home village. Some will be difficult or impossible to adjust because of the class sizes, but we’re hopeful it’ll help all the same.” His teacher cleared his throat, uncomfortable, but said finally “It’s not much, but a little of Yugakure will live on.” 

The sentiment was surprising, and Hiseo’s eyes widened a bit. Perhaps he’d been a bit too obvious with his own sharing of information, wanting to hold on to the triumphs of his village, something which he believed the Hot Springs academy to be. Iruka just patted him on the shoulder where he stood frozen, and moved away from him to give him some privacy. 

Hiseo had already mourned the loss of his home, but this was the first time he’d truly believed that perhaps something of it might not die with the rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: I spent ages figuring out the timeline for Naruto. I knew I wanted Hiseo to not graduate because of Hidan’s attack so he could join Konoha’s academy, so that set my timeline, and I made up the Yugakure academy stuff as I went along so the graduation age was just random. It was only after I found a more fleshed out timeline (http://naruto.wikia.com/wiki/User:Seelentau/Naruto_Timeline) that I actually worked out when this story fits in. 
> 
> It took a while to figure out the approximate time when Hidan attacked the village, and I actually thought he was older so it would’ve happened earlier – I honestly didn’t intend to have Hiseo in the Naruto timeline at that point. I thought Hidan was much older, so the attack on Yugakure would be sooner, and that would put Hiseo graduating before Neji’s class at the least, but that didn’t turn out to be the case O_O totally unintentional and I’m not actually sure where to go from here lol. 
> 
> Also it was only at this point that I realised that I hadn’t given Hiseo a last name, but not only have I yet to come up with one, it feels odd at this point for him to be anything but ‘Hiseo’, rather than xxxx Hiseo. Might work on it later. Let me know if you have any suggestions/thoughts.


End file.
